Irish Republican Army

Chapter 1: Introduction 1.1 General Background (Framework): The Irish Republican Army, or IRA, fought the English rule over Northern Ireland in the twentieth century and aimed to unite Northern Ireland with Southern Ireland to form the Republic Ireland. It stemmed from the times of William of Orange in 1690, where William’s Protestant Army defeated Catholic King James II in the Battle of the Boyne[1]. In the years leading up to 1703, thousands of Catholics were deported and relocated to live in new areas. English Protestants seized land and owned 90% of the land in Ireland in 1703, which the Catholic peasants had to pay rent for. Many laws were passed from 1695 to 1728 against the Catholics such as the prevention of owning expensive goods, joining the military, having legal jobs and public and…

The Irish Republican Army’s Struggle The IRA or Irish Republican Army. The IRA was founded in 1917 and their main goal was to unite Northern Ireland (which belongs to the UK) with Ireland. They tried to do this through suppression, violence and, assassinations to cause fear and panic. They usually targeted British governmental figures but have also targeted agents from British intelligence agencies like MI5 (Irish Republican Army And Censorship). In 1969, the IRA split into the Official IRA…

The Irish Republican Army started off not as a terrorist group but as a military organization and even took part in the Irish War of Independence. However, having lost the civil war they took part in, they stayed in existence with the plot to overthrow the Irish Free State and made their defiance against the British well know. They made its existence known to the world as a terrorist organization in the 1960s as the Clandestine “armed wing” of the Sinn Fein movement. They were devoted to…

I will talk about terrorism in the United Kingdom from 1969–1998. We will focus on an Irish republican paramilitary organization that called themselves the Irish Republican Army. The IRA sought to liberate Northern Ireland from the UK and to join with the Irish republic. They carried out many bombings during a period colloquially known as the Troubles. Their prime target was members of the British Army and officers of the Irish national police force. They fought a guerrilla warfare against the…

The Irish Republican Army (IRA) has existed as an organization for nearly 100 years. Particularly as terrorist groups go, that is impressive; in fact, “long-standing terrorism expert David Rapoport argues that 90 percent [of terrorist groups] last less than a year.” The case of the IRA, therefore, is significant to the discussion of how terrorism ends by, providing an essential context for a variety of reasons. This paper will specifically treat two of those reasons: 1) its centenary duration…

Utilizing Spoiling Opportunities as a Terror Strategy: The Irish Republican Army When an act of terrorism occurs, it can often seem like random, mindless violence to the victims and the bystanders. It can be surprising, therefore, to realize that terrorism is actually a very strategic decision. Terrorism can be very effective, used usually when a group is not strong enough to directly confront and force a policy change from a state actor, choosing instead to persuade their target by showing…

The Irish Republican Army (IRA) has been around for over a century. There have been multiple ceasefires and treaties. This paper will focus on the Good Friday Agreement signed in 1998 and why after decades of fighting the Provisional IRA came to agree finally to a peace treaty. Though it may seem as if these peace talks hold no relevance to the majority of people, it could, in fact, be a great insight into how to deal with armed aggressors within a country. This is a problem that countries all…

successor to the 1913 militant nationalist organization, the Irish Volunteers, was formed with the purpose of using armed forces to turn over British rule in Ireland. The IRA, or Irish Republican Army, fought for independence from Britain through the employment of guerilla warfare and vicious war tactics to force the British officials to reconsider their rule. After negotiations with Great Britain, two autonomous political entities were formed: Northern Ireland and the Irish Free State. However,…

12th Century when Norman invaders conquered the Ireland. The most recent iteration of this struggle began in the 20th Century with the rise of the most prominent Irish independent group to date, the Irish Republican Army (IRA). The origins of the IRA began as other smaller splinter groups had become inefficient at fighting for Irish independence. Former members of the Irish Volunteers, Irish Citizen Group, and independent freedom fighters coalesced together to name themselves the IRA. (Hart,…

2/23/1983 – Ireland. Twelve Irish Republican Army guerillas blow up a British cargo vessel. 1/31/1983 – Four Korean sailors seize control of a 300 foot freighter. 12/27/1982 – Five pirates boarded a Swedish cargo vessel and stole rolls of cloth. 7/6/1982 – Crew men aboard the Coast Guard cutter “Boutwell” sabotaged the vessel to hijack a sailboat in tow containing marijuana. 12/26/1982 – The Filipino ferry “Santa Lucia” was bombed by Moro Liberation Front. 3/9/1982 – A Lebanese cargo ship was…