Provisional Irish Republican Army

The Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA; more commonly referred to as the IRA, the Provos, or by some of its supporters as the army or the Ra) is an Irish Republican paramilitary organisation dedicated to the end of British rule in Northern Ireland and to a United Ireland. It has been outlawed and classified as a terrorist group in the Republic of Ireland, the United Kingdom, the United States and many other countries. Since its emergence in 1969, its stated aim has been the unification of Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland as a single sovereign state independent of the United Kingdom, which it believed could only be achieved by an armed campaign against British rule in Northern Ireland. On July 28, 2005, the Provisional IRA Army Council announced an end to its armed campaign, stating that it would work to achieve its aims using "purely political and democratic programmes through exclusively peaceful means" and that "IRA Volunteers must not engage in any other activities whatsoever".

Like all other organisations calling themselves the IRA (see List of IRAs), the Provisionals refer to themselves in public announcements and internal discussions as Óglaigh na hÉireann (literally "Volunteers of Ireland"), the official Irish language title of the Irish Defence Forces (the Irish army).

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An IRA mural in Belfast depicting the hunger strikes of 1981.

Origins

The Provisional IRA has its ideological and organisational roots in the pre-1969 anti-Treaty Irish Republican Army. This organisation split into two groups at its Special Army Convention in December 1969, mainly over the issue of abstentionism and over the question of how to respond to the escalating violence in Northern Ireland. The two groups that emerged from the split became known as the Official IRA (which espoused a Marxist analysis of Irish partition) and the Provisional IRA.

Although a split in the IRA was inevitable given the irreconcilability of the two factions, a number of ministers of the then Fianna Fáil government attempted to help the fledgling Provisionals by purchasing arms for them. This gave rise to the Arms Crisis scandal of 1970, and marked the end of Fianna Fail's transition from the "slightly constitutional" party (with an ambiguous attitude to political violence) established by Eamon de Valera in 1926 to a completely constitutional one.

The main figures in the early Provisional IRA were Seán Mac Stiofáin (who served as the organisation's first chief of staff), Ruairí Ó Brádaigh (the first president of Provisional Sinn Féin), Dáithí Ó Conaill, and Joe Cahill. All served on the first Provisional IRA Army Council. The Provisional appellation deliberately echoed the "Provisional Government" proclaimed during the 1916 Easter Rising.

The Provisionals maintained a number of the principles of the pre-1969 IRA. It considered British rule in Northern Ireland and the government of the Republic of Ireland to be illegitimate. Like the pre-1969 IRA, it believed that the IRA Army Council was the legitimate government of the all-island Irish Republic. This belief was based on a complicated series of perceived political inheritances which constructed a legal continuity from the Second Dáil. Most of these abstentionist principles were abandoned in 1986, although Sinn Féin still refuses to take its seats in the British parliament.

Initially, both the Official IRA and Provisional IRA espoused military means to pursue their goals. Unlike the Officials, however, the Provisionals called for a more aggressive campaign against the Northern Ireland state. While the Officials were initially the larger organisation and enjoyed more support from the republican constituency, the Provisionals came to dominate, especially after the Official IRA declared an indefinite ceasefire in 1972.

Although the Provisional IRA had a political wing (Provisional Sinn Féin, which split with Official Sinn Féin at the same time as the split in the IRA), the early Provisional IRA was extremely suspicious of political activity, arguing rather for the primacy of armed struggle.

Organisation

The IRA is organised hierarchically. It refers to its ordinary members as volunteers (or óglaigh in Irish). Up until the late 1970s, IRA volunteers were organised according to where they lived. Volunteers living in one area formed a company, which in turn was part of a battalion, which likewise made up brigades.

In the late 1970s, the geographical organisational principle was abandoned by the IRA in many areas in Northern Ireland owing to its inherent security vulnerability. In its place came smaller, tight-knit cells under the direct control of the IRA leadership.

All levels of the IRA are entitled to send delegates to IRA General Army Conventions (GACs). The GAC is the IRA's supreme decision-making authority. Before 1969, GACs met regularly. Since 1970 they have become less frequent, owing to the difficulty in organising such a large gathering of what is an illegal organisation.

The GAC in turn elects a 12-member IRA Executive, which in turn selects seven of its members to form the IRA Army Council. The seats vacated on the Executive are immediately refilled. For day-to-day purposes authority is vested in the Provisional Army Council (PAC) which, as well as directing policy and taking major tactical decisions, appoints a chief of staff from one of its number or, less commonly, from outside its ranks. The chief of staff then appoints an adjutant general as well as a General Headquarters (GHQ), which consists of a number of individual departments. These departments are:

At a regional level, the IRA is divided into a Northern Command, which operates in the area of Northern Ireland and the border counties of the Republic, and a Southern Command, which operates in the rest of Ireland. There are also organisational units in Britain and the United States.

Weaponry and operations

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Mural in Derry depicting IRA weapons, 1986

Armament and early campaign

In the early days of the Troubles from around 1969-71, the Provisional IRA was very poorly armed, having available only a handful of old fashioned weapons left over from the IRA's Border campaign of the 1950s. Such weapons included Lee-Enfield rifles, Webley revolvers, and Thompson submachine guns. Their explosives were primarily gelignite - a commercial explosive which they either bought or stole from civilian sources. In the first years of the conflict, the Provisionals' main activity was providing firepower to support nationalist rioters, often very young, defend nationalist areas against attacks from loyalists, the Royal Ulster Constabulary, the B-Specials and the British Army. The PIRA gained much of its support from these activities, as they were widely perceived within the nationalist community as being defenders of nationalist and Catholic people against aggression. After 1969, the Provisionals recieved a large ammount of stored IRA weaponry from previous IRA campaigns (though the Official IRA retained some of it). This was mainly WWII era weapons, including Lee Enfields, American M1s, German Schmeisers, Thompsons, Bren Guns and Webley revolvers. (Taylor p62). John De Chastelain and the decommissioning body reported that this weaponry wwas still in IRA arms dumps in 2005.

According to several books about the rise of the PIRA, the IRA began receiving modern arms during the early 1970's. Pro IRA groups in the Republic of Ireland began suppling the IRA with M16s and British made Stern sub-machine guns. Unionists also sometimes allege that the PIRA was armed by the Irish Government, though this was not found to be the case when investigated in the Arms Trial. By 1972, The Provisionals had large quantities of modern arms (especially Armalite rifles) procured in the USA. The IRA's main gun runner in the US was George Harrison, an IRA veteran, living in New York since 1938. He bought guns via a Corsican arms dealer named George de Meo, who had organised crime connections (English p116). All sources agree that Harrison was funded by NORAID - the IRA support group in America. Joe Cahill was the liason between NORAID and Harrison. In 1971, the RUC had already captured 700 modern weapons, 2 tonnes of explosive and 157,000 rounds, most of which was US made (English p116). Harrison spent an estimated US$1 million in the 1970s on over 2500 guns (Moloney p16). According to Brendan Hughes (an IRA man, later IRA prison commander in Long Kesh), the IRA smuggled the American arms by sea on the QE2 from New York via Southhampton (Taylor p108). These included AR-15 and Armalite assault rifles, UZI sub-machine guns, and Browning and Smith & Wesson pistols. Other arms such as the American made M-16 also found their way into the hands of the IRA. In addition, another IRA man Gerry MeGahey was sent to the US in the late 1970s. He procured Armalite AR15s, Heckler and Koch Hk19s and other weapons, again, funded by Irish American republicans (Taylor p4). Harrison was arrested by the FBI in 1981. Megahey was arrested by the FBI in 1982 in a "sting" operation, while trying to buy surface-to-air missiles (Moloney p16). The last major American arms shipment was intecepted by the Irish authorities in the Marita Ann ship off Kerry, allegedly after a tip off from IRA informer Sean O'Callaghan (English p117) (Moloney p16) Template:Fn. The other source of IRA arms in the 1970s was Libya, whose leader Colonel Muammar al-Qaddafi sympathised with them. The first Libyan arms donation to the PIRA occurred in 1972-3, via Joe Cahill's visits to Libya. Cahill was arrested on board the Claudia in 1973, off Waterford with a shipload of Libyan arms (English p117). This included 250 Russian made rifles (Kalashnikovs?), 240 other guns and anti tank mines and other explosives. Its is estimated that three other similar shipments got through at this time (Taylor p156). Moloney reports that Qaddafi also donated US$3-5 million at this time (Moloney p10)Template:Fn

As the conflict escalated in the early 1970s, the numbers recruited by the IRA mushroomed, in response to the nationalist community's anger at events such as the introduction of internment without trial and Bloody Sunday (1972) when the Parachute Regiment of the British army shot dead 13 unarmed civil rights marchers in Derry. The IRA leadership took the opportunity to launch an offensive, believing that they could force a British withdrawal from Ireland by inflicting severe casualties, thus undermining public support in Britain for its continued presence.

During this period, a typical IRA operation involved sniping at British patrols, killing local police and soldiers when on or off-duty, and the bombing of commercial targets such as shops and businesses. The most effective tactic the IRA developed for its bombing campaign was the car bomb, where large amounts of explosives were packed into a car, which was driven to its target and then exploded. The bloodiest example of the Provisionals' commercial bombing campaign was Bloody Friday in Belfast, where 9 people were killed and many more injured. In rural areas such as South Armagh, the IRA units most effective weapon was the "culvert-bomb" - where explosives were planted under drains in country roads. This proved so dangerous for British army patrols that all troops in the area had to be transported by helicopter, a policy which they have continued down to the present day. The highest military death toll from an IRA attack came in August 1979, at Warrenpoint, county Down, when 18 British soldiers from the Parachute Regiment were killed by "culvert bombs". Another very effective IRA tactic devised in the 1970s was the use of home-made mortars mounted on the back of trucks that were fired at police and army bases. The most lethal of these attacks came in February 1985, when 9 RUC officers were killed by mortar rounds fired at a police station in Newry.

Accusations of sectarian attacks

The 1970s were the most violent years of the Troubles, with 1972 being the most bloody single year - over 500 people being killed. As well as its campaign against the security forces, the IRA became involved, in the middle of the decade, in a "tit for tat" cycle of sectarian killings with loyalist paramilitaries. The worst example of this occurred in 1976, when a IRA unit in Armagh shot dead ten Protestant building workers at Kingsmills, in reprisal for Ulster Volunteer Force killings of local Roman Catholics. As the IRA campaign continued through the 1970s and '80s, the organisation increasingly targeted RUC and Ulster Defence Regiment servicemen. Because these men were almost exclusively Protestant and unionist, these killings were also widely portrayed as a campaign of sectarian assassination. Another example of an IRA sectarian attack happened in 1987, when the IRA placed a bomb near a Remembrance Day service in Enniskillen, killing eleven, mostly Protestant, by-standers. (See Remembrance Day Massacre). Towards the end of the troubles, the Provisionals widened their campaign even further, to include the killing of people who worked in a civilian capacity with the RUC and British Army. The bloodiest example of this came in 1992, when an IRA bomb killed eight building workers who were working on a British Army base at Teebane. Again, since Protestants and unionists were more likely to work for the British Army and police, this was widely seen as part of a campaign against Protestants. For the IRA, such attacks may have been counter-productive, as incidents such as these facilitated the British government's aims to "criminalise" the IRA and portray the conflict as one between sectarian gangs, and itself as a neutral arbiter.

Another plank of the IRA strategy was developed in the mid-seventies and continued up untill the 1996 ceasefire. This was the bombing of civilian targets in Britain. On several occasions, including at Birmingham and Guildford, bombings of pubs (on the basis that they were used by British soldiers) caused large-scale civilian loss of life.

Libyan arms and the "Tet Offensive"

In the 1980s, the IRA obtained very large quantities of weapons and explosives from Colonel Qaddafi's Libya. The second major Libyan contribution ot the IRA came in 1986-87. These included 9mm Browning, Taurus Glock and Beretta pistols, Kalashnikov rifles, MP5 Submachine guns, rocket propelled grenades, heavy Soviet made DShK machine guns, American made M60 Machine guns, US Military Flamethrowers, the plastic explosive Semtex and SAM 7 and Stinger Surface-to-air (SAM) missiles. However, a third of the Libyan arms consignment was intercepted by Irish and French authorities in the Ship, the Eksund in 1987. contained 120 tonnes of weapons, including heavy machine guns, 36 RPGs, 1000 detonaterrs, 20 SAMSs, Semtex and 1,000,0000 rounds of ammunition (O'Brien p142). An indication of what was aboard the other vessels can be got from subsequent Garda arms finds, which in 1988 included several hundred Kalashnikovs, including models from Romania, Yugoslavia and The USSR, Russian DSHK machine guns, NATO calibre M60 machine guns and semtex (O'Brien p143). Moloney claims that the Eksund shipment contained military mortars and 106 millimetre canons, a fact nver acknowledged by the Irish authorities (Moloney p22). It is also estimated that Gaddafi donated the equivilent of £2million with the 1980s shipments(O'Brien p143) Template:Fn.

The Provisional IRA was very well armed by the end of the Troubles, but this did not necessarily correlate with the intensity of its armed campaign. Most of the losses in inflicted on the British Army occurred in the early to mid 1970s, although they continued to inflict substantial casualties on the British Military, the RUC and UDR throughout the Troubles. The IRA Army Council had plans for a dramatic escaltion of the conflict which they likened to the Tet Offensive of the Vietnam War in the late 1980s with the aid of the arms obtained from Libya. However this failed to materialise. IRA sources quoted in The Secret History of the IRA by Ed Moloney say that the interception of the Eksund shipment eliminated the element of surprise which they had hoped to have for this offensive. Much of the IRA's new heavy weaponry, for instance the surface-to-air missiles and flamethrowers, were never used.

By the early 1990's the IRA needed a new source for weapons, since the Libyan pipeline had been closed. The IRA used former KGB contacts who were now working for the Russian Mafia. These Russian Mafia contacts opened up an arms pipeline which shipped the IRA spohisticated weapons from Balkan countries such as Croatia, Estonia and Serbia. This pipeline continued to operate throughout the remainder of the war and allowed the IRA to continue thier bombing and assassination campaign against the British Army and the RUC.

War with special forces and Loyalists

The IRA did suffer some heavy losses at the hands of British special forces like the SAS (Special Air Service), the most spectacular being the ambush and killing of eight armed IRA members at Loughgall in 1987 (see shoot-to-kill policy in Northern Ireland and Provisional IRA East Tyrone Brigade). (According to "Janes Intelligence Online", during the course of the Northern Ireland "Troubles", at least five SAS active service and undercover operatives were killed by the IRA.)

The IRA and also its political wing, Sinn Féin also suffered from a campaign of assassination launched against their members by Loyalist paramilitaries. These attacks killed about 15 IRA and 20 Sinn Fein members between 1987 and 1995. It has been alleged that the loyalists were aided in this campaign by elements of the security forces and members of Britian's Secret Service, MI6 (see Stevens Report). From 1992 until the ceasefire of 1994, loyalist paramilitaries killed more people every year in Northern Ireland than republicans (mostly Catholics civilians), largely due to a large shipment of arms loyalists received from the South African apartheid government (see Short Brothers).

In Response to these attacks, the IRA began a systematic assassination campaign against leading members of the UDA and UVF. Dating from 1974 the IRA began a system of attack against Loyalist paramilitary groups, based on the principle of two to one, (i.e. Two loyalist paramilitary leaders killed for every one IRA or Sinn Fein member attacked or killed). according to the "Council On Foreign Relations" this campaign of targeted killing resulted in the deaths of at least 90 leading UDA, UVF, and LVF leaders from roughly 1975 to 1998. Many authors have speculated that this assassination programme against Loyalist terror leaders helped convince the leadership of both the UDA and UVF, to call ceasefires in 1994. However the Loyalists called their ceasefire several months after the IRA ceasefire of that year and indeed argued that it was their murder campaign against Catholics in general that had forced the IRA ceasefire by placing intolerable pressure on the nationalist community.

One infamous IRA attempt to kill the entire leadership of the UDA caused enormous collateral damage, when a bomb planted at a Shankill (Belfast) Road fish shop killed 9 people. The bomb was intended to kill the entire senior leadership of the UDA, who were meeeting in a room above the shop. Instead, the meeting finished early and the bomb ended up killing only 2 confirmed UDA members as well as the bomber himself, whose device exploded prematurely. The remaining 7 deaths were those of innocent shoppers and bystanders.

Campaign up to the 1994 ceasefire

By the early to mid 1990s, the IRA found it more difficult to kill British military personnel in Northern Ireland, who were by now familiar with operating there and well protected by body armour. One of several methods the IRA used to counter this, was the use of high velocity Barrett M98 sniper rifles, several of which the Provisionals imported from the US. Around this time the IRA also developed a new bomb detonation method using infra-red technology. This new technique of remote detonation, allowed the IRA to continue a concerted bombing campaign against the British Army. However, the number of British soldiers killed dropped from the worst years of the 1970's and 80's. Some of this was attributed to a increased emphasis on killing police officers and Loyalist paramilitary leaders, along with a stepped up commercial bombing campaign. During this period, the IRA also established a highly successful economic bombing campaign against the British mainland, particularly London, and other major British cities, which caused a huge amount of physical and economic damage to property. Among their targets were the City of London, Birmingham, Canary Wharf and the Manchester city centre. It has been argued by many historians that this successful bombing campaign helped convince the British government (who had hoped to contain the conflict to Northern Ireland with its Ulsterisation policy) to negotiate with Sinn Fein.

Decommissioning of arms

The Provisional IRA decomissioned its arms in July-September 2005. Among the weaponry detroyed were: 1,000 rifles 2 tonnes of Semtex 20-30 heavy machine guns 7 Surface-to-air missiles (unused) 7 flame throwers 1,200 detonators 11 rocket-propelled grenade launchers 90 hand guns 100+ grenades Source: Security estimates/Jane's Intelligence Review

Categorisation

Due to its frequent use of bombs; its killing of hundreds of policemen, soldiers, UDA/UVF leaders and civilians, predominantly though not exclusively in Northern Ireland; its status as an illegal organization; its role in racketeering, bank robberies, 'street justice' and the fact that the unionist/loyalist majority in Northern Ireland wanted to continue living under British rule, it is internationally considered a terrorist group Template:Fn, although its supporters preferred the labels freedom fighter, guerrilla and volunteer.

IRA attacks on the British security forces (i.e. the British Army and the RUC) and loyalist paramilitaries in Northern Ireland could be described as guerrilla warfare, so "guerrilla" is a technically accurate term. This definition was criticised by unionists and constitutional republicans as suggesting that the IRA's actions had at least some legitimacy. In addition, aside from excessive collateral damage, IRA attacks have repeatedly specifically focussed on non-military, non-police targets, which supports the use of the term "terrorist."

Membership of the IRA remains illegal in both the UK and the Republic of Ireland, but IRA prisoners convicted of offences committed before 1998 have been granted conditional early release as part of the Good Friday (Belfast) Agreement. In the United Kingdom a person convicted of membership of a "proscribed organisation", such as the IRA, still nominally faces imprisonment for up to 10 years.

Strength and support

In the early to mid 1970s, the numbers recruited by the Provisional IRA, may have reached several thousand, but these were reduced when the IRA re-organised its structures from 1977 onwards. An RUC report of 1986 estimated that the PIRA had 300 or so members in Acitive Serive Units and up to 750 active members in total in Northern Ireland (O'Brien p161). This does not take into consideration the IRA units in the Republic of Ireland or those in Britain and continental Europe. In 2005, Irish Minister for Justice Michael McDowell told the Dáil that the organization had "between 1,000 and 1,500" active members [1]. According to The Provisional IRA (Eamon Mallie and Patrick Bishop), roughly 8000 people passed through the ranks of the IRA during the 30 year Troubles, many of them leaving after arrest, "retirement" or dissilusionment. According to the US State Department, the Provisional IRA has hundreds of hardcore members, as well as tens of thousands of civilian sympathisers in Ireland.

The popular support for the IRA's campaign in the Troubles is hard to guage, given that Sinn Fein, the IRA's political wing, did not stand in election until the mid 1980s. Sinn Fein did not overtake the SDLP as the main nationalist party in Northern Ireland until after the Belfast Agreement, by which time they no longer advocated violence. However, it is widely recognised that the IRA possessed substantial support in parts of Northern Ireland since the early 1970s. Areas of IRA support included working class Catholic/nationalist areas of Belfast, Derry and other towns and cities. The most notable of these include parts of the north and west Belfast and the Bogside and Creggan areas of Derry City. In addition, the PIRA has been strongly supported in rural areas with a strong republican tradition, These include South Armagh, East Tyrone, South county Derry and several other localities.

In the Republic of Ireland, there was some sympathy for the Provisional movement in the early 1970s. However, the movement's appeal was hurt badly by more notorious bombings widely perceived as atrocities, such as the killing of civilians attending a Remembrance Day ceremony at the cenotaph in Enniskillen in 1987 (the IRA maintain that their target was a contingent of British soldiers due to pass the cenotaph), and the murder of two children when a bomb went off in Warrington, which led to tens of thousands of people demonstrating on O'Connell Street in Dublin to call for an end to the IRA's campaign. In the 1990s the IRA moved to attacking economic targets, such as the Baltic Exchange and Canary Wharf, the latter of which killed two civilians. More cynical commentators contend that these bombings concentrated minds in the British government far more than the violence in Northern Ireland, which led to the beginning of informal contacts with the IRA soon after. The IRA had an official policy of bombing only targets in England (not the Celtic countries of Scotland and Wales), although they detonated a bomb at an oil terminal in the Shetland Isles in 1981 while Queen Elizabeth II was performing the official opening of the terminal.

In recent times the movement's strength has been somewhat weakened by members leaving the organisation to join hardline splinter groups such as the Continuity IRA and the Real IRA. According to McDowell, these organizations have little more than 150 members each [2]. The PIRA's associated political party, Sinn Féin, until recently received the support of only a minority of nationalists in Northern Ireland, and very few voters in the Republic of Ireland. Sinn Féin now has 24 members of the Northern Ireland Assembly (out of 108), five Westminster MPs (out of 18 from Northern Ireland) and five Republic of Ireland TDs (out of 166). This increase is widely perceived as support for the IRA ceasefire and some commentators maintain this support would decrease if the IRA returned to violence (although this did not happen during the brief resumption that occurred between the 1994 and 1997 ceasefires).

In the United States in November 1982, five men were acquitted of smuggling arms to the IRA after they revealed the CIA had approved the shipment (although the CIA officially denied this). The IRA has also, on occasion, received assistance from foreign governments, including considerable training and arms from Libya, the Cuban DGI, Soviet KGB and the East German Stasi. The IRA has also received weapons, training and logistical support from Irish Americans, as well as the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO). Since the late 1970's it is believed by many intelligence agencies that the IRA has shared bomb making and urban warfare tactics with a list of terror groups including: The Basque Separatist Movement (ETA), South African ANC, Italian Red Brigades, German RAF, the PLO, Hezbollah, and even the Sicilian Mafia. In 2001 IRA bomb experts were caught allegedly training Colombian guerrillas, (the FARC), in bomb making and urban warfare techniques Template:Fn.

U.S. support has been weakened by the War against Terrorism, and the fallout from the events of the 11 September 2001. The organisation has also historically raised funds through smuggling, racketeering and bank robberies. A significant US supporter since 1969 has been Noraid (Irish Northern Aid Committee).

Despite some successes by the British security services, military and police at infiltrating the IRA, as of the year 2001, the British, Irish and American governments believed that the IRA remained an extremely potent and capable terrorist organization.

In February 2005 the IRA was denounced by relatives of Robert McCartney, who was murdered in public by IRA members. The resulting controversy led Gerry Adams to advise republicans to give evidence against those IRA members who were involved, a first for the republican leader. Three IRA members were expelled from the organisation following the murder and an offer was made by the organisation to shoot those responsible for the killing. The family of Mr. McCartney allege that, notwithstanding public calls for information by Sinn Féin leaders, no one has come forward with information that would allow a prosecution to go further. They also allege that republican intimidation of witnesses has continued and that even the friend of Mr. McCartney who was stabbed with him is too afraid to make a police statement.

Activities

According to the CAIN research project at the University of Ulster, the Provisional IRA was responsible for the deaths of 1,706 people during the Troubles up to 2001. This figure represents 48.4 percent of the total fatalities in the conflict. 497 of these casualties were civilians, 638 of the casualties were from the British Army (183 from the Ulster Defence Regiment- a part time local reserve unit) and 455 from other regiments). Another 271 of the casualties were members of the Royal Ulster Constabulary. Of its victims, 340 were Northern Irish Catholics, 794 were Northern Irish Protestants and 572 were not from Northern Ireland. Accoring to the American Council of Foreign Relations, the IRA killed about 90 Loyalist paramilitaries. The IRA was chiefly active in Northern Ireland, although it took its campaign to the Republic of Ireland, Britain, and also carried out several attacks in the Netherlands and Germany.

The IRA lost 276 members during the Troubles. In addition, 65 members of Sinn Fein were killed, some of whom were also IRA members, but this was not publicly acknowledged (O'Brien p 26). In 132 of these cases, IRA members either caused their own deaths (as a result of hunger strikes, premature bombing accidents etc.), or were murdered on allegations of having worked for the security forces. These executions killed more IRA members than any other organisation did during the course of the Troubles.

The Provisional IRA's activities included bombings, assassinations, kidnappings, punishment beatings of civilians accused of criminal or "antisocial" behaviour, extortion and robberies (most notably being widely blamed for the £26 million Northern Bank robbery in 2004). Previous targets have included the British military, the Royal Ulster Constabulary, and loyalist militants — against all of whom IRA gunmen and bombers fought a guerrilla war.

The IRA also targeted certain British government officials, politicians, judges, senior Military and police officers and civilians in both Northern Ireland, Great Britain, and in other areas such as Germany, Canada, Holland and Australia. Many civilians assisting or perceived to have been assisting the security forces were killed in Northern Ireland, whilst many British civilians were killed during the IRA bombing campaign in England, which was often directed against civilian targets such as pubs and public transport, and targets of an economic significance such as shops and Canary Wharf.

One of their most famous victims was the uncle of Prince Philip, Lord Louis Mountbatten, killed along with two children and his cousin on 27 August 1979 in County Sligo, by an IRA bomb placed in his boat.

Many Catholic civilians have been killed by the IRA for collaboration with the British security forces (i.e. the British Army or the RUC). The IRA also summarily executed or otherwise punished suspected drug dealers and other suspected criminals in the past, sometimes after kangaroo trials. IRA members suspected of being British or Irish government informers were also executed, often after interrogation and torture and a kangaroo trial.

Members of the Garda Síochána (the Republic of Ireland's police force) have also been killed; most notorious was the killing of Detective Garda Jerry McCabe, who was killed by sustained machine-gun fire while sitting in his car while escorting a post office delivery. IRA bombing campaigns have been conducted against rail and London Underground (subway) stations, pubs and shopping areas on the island of Great Britain, and a British military facility in Germany.

In the 1980s, IRA members are suspected to have kidnapped the racehorse Shergar and attempted to ransom it. Activities such as these were linked to the IRA's fundraising.

Although the IRA only formally announced an end to its armed campaign in 2005, it had been on ceasefire since 1997 (although hardline splinter groups such as the Continuity IRA and the Real IRA continue their campaigns). It previously observed a cease-fire from 1 September 1994 to February 1996, after the Downing Street Declaration, although this was ended when the British government refused to talk to Sinn Féin.

The Belfast Agreement

The IRA ceasefire in 1997 formed part of a process that led to the 1998 Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement. The Agreement has among its aims that all paramilitary groups in Northern Ireland cease their activities and disarm by May 2000. This is one of many Agreement aims that have yet to be realised.

Calls from Sinn Féin have led the IRA to commence disarming in a process that has been overviewed by Canadian General John de Chastelain's decommissioning body in October 2001. However, following the collapse of the Stormont power-sharing government in 2002, which was partly triggered by allegations that republican spies were operating within Parliament Buildings and the Civil Service (although no convictions came from the widely-publicised police operation, and it has since emerged that it was actually MI5 who had a spy in Stormont's Sinn Féin offices), the IRA temporarily broke contact with General de Chastelain. Increasing numbers of people, from the Democratic Unionist Party under Ian Paisley and the Social Democratic and Labour Party under Mark Durkan to the Irish government under Bertie Ahern and the mainstream Irish media, have begun demanding not merely decommissioning but the wholesale disbandment of the IRA.

In December 2004, attempts to persuade the IRA to disarm entirely collapsed when the Democratic Unionist Party, under Ian Paisley, insisted on photographic evidence. The IRA stated that this was an attempt at humiliation. The Irish government (generally in private), and Justice Minister Michael McDowell (in public, and often) also insisted that there would need to be a complete end to IRA activity. This is felt by many to have been a major reason for the collapse of this deal. Politicians who called loudest for IRA decommissioning were often reticent on the corresponding obligation of loyalist groups to do the same.

At the beginning of February 2005, the IRA declared that it was withdrawing from the disarmament process, but in July 2005 it declared that its campaign of violence was over, and that transparent mechanisms would be used, under the de Chastelain process, to satisfy the Northern Ireland communities that it was disarming totally

In mid 2003, the Independent Monitoring Commission (IMC) set up to assess IRA and Loyalist paramilitary activity, issued a report on the strength and intent of the PIRA. The report stated that the Ira continued to engage in intelligence gathering, (Mostly on Loyalist paramilitary leaders) arms importation, urban guerilla training, and organized crime. They also concluded that the IRA had no intention of returning to war, even though they easily had the means. An even more damning assessment was made about the Loyalist UDA and UVF groups, which the IMC claimed were heavily into crime, drug dealing and terrorisim. The IMC concluded that the IRA was committed to the peace process, but remained one of the most lethal and powerfull terrorist organizations in the world.

End of the armed campaign

On July 28, 2005, the Provisional IRA Army Council announced an end to its armed campaign. In a statement read by Séanna Breathnach, the organization stated that it has instructed its members to dump all weapons and not to engage in "any other activities whatsoever" apart from assisting “the development of purely political and democratic programmes through exclusively peaceful means". Furthermore, the organization authorised its representatives to engage immediately with the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning (IICD) to verifiably put its arms beyond use "in a way which will further enhance public confidence and to conclude this as quickly as possible".

This is not the first time that organisations styling themselves IRA have issued orders to dump arms. After its defeat in the Irish Civil War in 1924 and at the end of its unsuccessful Border Campaign in 1962, the IRA Army Council issued similar orders. However, this is the first time in Irish republicanism that any organisation has voluntarily decided to destroy its arms.

On 25 September 2005, international weapons inspectors supervised the full disarmament of the outlawed Irish Republican Army, a long-sought goal of Northern Ireland's peace process. The office of IICD Chairman John de Chastelain, a retired Canadian general who oversaw the weapons destruction at secret locations, released details regarding the scrapping of many tons of IRA weaponry at a news conference in Belfast on 26 September. He said the arms had been "put beyond use" and that they were "satisfied that the arms decommissioned represent the totality of the IRA's arsenal."

The IRA permitted two independent witnesses, including a Methodist minister and a Roman Catholic priest close to Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams, to view the secret disarmament work. However, Ian Paisley, the leader of the DUP, has complained that since the witnesses were appointed by the IRA themselves, rather than being appointed by the British or Irish governments, they therefore cannot be said to be unbiased witnesses to the decommissioning. [3]

Notable events

See Chronology of Provisional IRA Actions

P. O'Neill

The PIRA traditionally uses a well-known signature in its public statements, which are all issued under the pseudonymous name of "P. O'Neill" of the "Irish Republican Publicity Bureau, Dublin".

According to Ruairí Ó Brádaigh, it was Seán Mac Stiofáin, as chief of staff of the Provisionals, who invented the name. However, under his usage, the name was written and pronounced according to Irish orthography and pronunciation as "P. Ó Néill". Ó Brádaigh also maintains that there is no particular significance to the name, thus discounting claims that it is a reference to Sir Phelim O'Neill, the executed leader of the Irish Rebellion of 1641.

Some Unionists have sarcastically commented that the "P" actually stands for Pinocchio, given the claimed factual unreliability of some of P. O'Neill's statements over the years.

Infiltration

The IRA has often been infiltrated by British Intelligence agents, and in the past some IRA members have been informers. IRA members suspected of being informants were usually executed after an IRA 'court-martial'.

In May 2003 a number of newspapers named Freddie Scappaticci as the alleged identity of the British Force Research Unit's most senior informer within the Provisional IRA, code-named Steakknife, who is thought to have been head of the Provisional IRA's internal security force, charged with rooting out and executing informers. Scappaticci denies that this is the case and is taking legal action to challenge this claim.

Footnotes

Template:FnbOther books such as the "Financing of Terror" by James Adams, claim that Irish-American Organized Crime groups in Boston, New York and Chicago also supplied weaponry. This is also disputed, although it is possible that George Harrison liased with Irish American organised crime to buy weapons.

Template:Fnb According to the book "The Sword and the Shield" by Christopher Andrew, the KGB and East German Stasi shipped large consignment's of weapons to the IRA including Skorpion sub-machine pistols and AK-47 assault rifles. This is disputed however and is not mentioned in any of the mainstream histories of the Provisional IRA. It is possible that Eastern Block intelligence funnelled arms to the IRA through the Libyan regime.

Template:Fnb. The IRA contined arming itslef throughout the 1990s, despite its cesefires of 1994-96 and 1997-present. During the 1990's the IRA secured more weapons from the Balkans and other areas of Eastern Europe including Estonia, Croatia and Serbia. These weapons were supplied via an Eastern pipline allegedly set up by IRA contacts within the Russian Mafia.In addition, several IRA men were arrested in Flordia in the USA in 1999, while trying to smuggle arms to Ireland.

Template:Fnb The PIRA is described as a terrorist organisation by the governments of the Republic of Ireland, the United Kingdom, the United States, Spain, Germany and Italy, the latter three of which have alleged the existence of IRA links with terrorist organisations within their own jurisdictions including ETA and the Red Brigades. It is described as a terrorist organisation by An Garda Síochána, the police force of the Republic of Ireland, and the Police Service of Northern Ireland, (PSNI). It is generally called a terrorist organisation by the following media outlets: The Irish Times, the Irish Independent, the Irish Examiner, the Sunday Independent, the Evening Herald, the Sunday Tribune, Ireland on Sunday, the Sunday Times. On the island of Ireland among political parties Fianna Fáil and the Progressive Democrats who together form a coalition government in the Republic of Ireland refer to it as a terrorist organisation, as do the main opposition parties Fine Gael, the Labour Party, the Green Party, and the Workers Party, while in Northern Ireland it is described as a terrorist movement by the mainly nationalist Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP), the cross community Alliance Party, and from the unionist community the Ulster Unionist Party, the Democratic Unionist Party and the Progressive Unionist Party. Members of the IRA are tried in the Republic in the Special Criminal Court, a court set up by emergency legislation and which is described in its functioning as dealing with terrorism. On the island of Ireland the largest political party to suggest that the IRA is not a terrorist organisation is Sinn Féin, currently the largest pro-Belfast Agreement political party in Northern Ireland. Sinn Féin is widely regarded as the political wing of the IRA, but the party insists that the two organisations are separate. The United States Department of State and the European Union have taken the Provisional IRA off their lists of terrorist organisations due to the fact that there is a cease-fire. The RIRA and CIRA are still listed. Peter Mandelson, a former Northern Ireland Secretary (a member of the British cabinet with responsibility for Northern Ireland) contrasted the activities of the IRA and those of Al-Qaeda, describing the latter as "terrorists" and the former as "freedom fighters".

Template:Fnb These men were originally acquitted of aiding FARC and convicted solely on the lesser charge of possessing false passports; however the acquittal was overturned on appeal. The three men disappeared while on bail and have returned to Ireland, having departed from Colombia before the appeal was concluded. The Colombian government has said that it will seek their extradition, a position which has been supported by U.S. officials and by members of the Democratic Unionist Party in Ireland, while the British government has said that it will extradite them if they ever come within its jurisdiction. The case was controversial for several reasons, including accusations of heavy reliance on the testimony of a former FARC member (who was subsequently found to have perjured himself) and of dubious forensic evidence. The 3 Irishmen at one point accused the U.S. and British governments, who provided details about their background activities and gave technical support to Colombian forensic investigators, of setting them up (through the activities of their embassies in Bogotá). There was also political pressure from the government of Alvaro Uribe, supporters and members of which had previously called for a guilty verdict.

Sources

Martin Dillon, 25 Years of Terror - the IRA's War against the British,
Richard English, Armed Struggle - the IRA and Sinn Fein
Peter Taylor, Provos the IRA and Sinn Fein
Ed Moloney, The Secret History of the IRA
Eamonn Mallie and Patrick Bishop, The Provisional IRA
Toby Harnden, Bandit Country -The IRA and South Armagh
Brendan O'Brien, The Long War - The IRA and Sinn Fein.
Tim Pat Coogan, The Troubles

External links