IRISH REPUBLICAN ARMY

Provisional Irish Republican Army

Provisional Irish Republican Army

Introduction

'The Provisional Irish republican Army (PIRA) was formed in December 1969' following a split with the Dublin based Irish Republican Army (IRA) due to differences over ideology and response to the violence being sustained by the Catholic community within Northern Ireland. Ever since the formation of the independent free state of Ireland in 1921 and the forming of Northern Ireland or Ulster, the majority of nationalist Catholics have rejected the partition of Ireland. The Irish Republican Army (IRA) during this period conducted a low level campaign of violence aimed at reuniting Ireland; although by the 1960's the groups' activities had reduced considerably and where rather ineffective or none existent. This essay extensively reviews IRA, analysing its international, state/government, elite and popular conditions. The essay also explores the actors using violence based on demographics, their goals and targets, and the resources, tactics, outcomes of resulting violence over the years.

Discussion and Analysis

Between 1922 and the late 1960's the Catholic population within Northern Ireland had suffered years of discrimination in jobs and housing at hands of the British ruled state. This discrimination led in 1969 to a number of civil rights marches which resulted in major civil unrest. The marchers were met by the heavy handed tactics and violent crack down of the predominately Protestant police force, the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC).

Tension remained high within Northern Ireland over the summer of 1969, in August following an Loyalist apprentice boys rally in Londonderry a confrontation between the marchers and the RUC resulted in 3 full days of rioting which quickly spread to other parts of the province resulting in widespread loyalist intimidation of the catholic populace which resulted in up to '200 Catholic homes being destroyed or in need of repair' (wikipedia.org) this together with wide spread rioting and sectarian violence resulted in the British Army being deployed to the streets of the Ulster on 14 August 1969, in order to restore law and order and to provide protection for the Catholic minority.

Certain IRA members within Belfast became increasingly frustrated with their Dublin based leadership who for political reasons had not prepared properly in advance of the sectarian violence and due to this were inadequately prepared and unable to defend the Catholic community in their time of need. These IRA members refused to take orders from Dublin and began to make contact with the other IRA members within Belfast resulting in 9 out of the 13 IRA units within Belfast siding with the members and finally in December 1969 the Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA) was born.

Although during its history PIRA has never been directly sponsored by any state, it has been the beneficiary of both financial and hardware support by the likes of the Republics of Ireland, supporters' in North America through NORAID and Libya. It has had strong ties with a number of national and international terrorist organisations namely the Catholic reaction Force (CRF) and Basque Fatherland and Freedom ...