The Quest for Freedom:
The Irish Republican Army and the armed struggle in Irish Politics
Traditionally there has always been armed resistance in Ireland to the British occupation. This type of resistance was effective primarily when large groups of Irish people marched against the British government's refusal to recognize Irish independence.
This was the case with the United Irishmen in the 1790's. It was this group that Irish republicanism arose. These men were greatly inspired by the American and French revolutions and the democratic ideals they represented. One man in particular was inspired by these ideals. His name was Teobald Wolfe Tone, the "Father of Irish Republicanism." Tone initially helped found the United Irishmen (for more information on Teobald Wolfe Tone see the main page). The United Irishmen, at first, went about non-violent means to achieve their freedom. As these attempts were unsuccessful the Irish people felt that only through the use of arms could Ireland achieve freedom and equality. Throughout the century the Irish people continued their armed struggle, with four separate uprisings: 1798, 1803, 1848, and 1867.
The years of 1845-1852 were dark ones for the Irish people, potato harvests around the country failed, and taxes were high. This period of time known as the Great Hunger, or Potato famine saw millions starve and even more left the country. Ireland's pleas for help from the British government fell upon deaf ears. Though the Irish people were basically unarmed and starving, they led an ill-fated uprising in 1848.
Out of this period many lessons were learned by the Irish people. After the Great Hunger many Irishmen would never again trust the British government. During the 1850s and 1860's Irish patriots and the Fenian Movement won widespread support in Ireland and America for its plans for an armed struggle to achieve an Irish Republic. Another uprising was held in 1867 and was again crushed. It would be another 49 years before another attempted uprising.
During these 49 years the Irish people tried to achieve their freedom more politically than forcefully. Through electoral politics and campaigns for land reform in Ireland, by the Irish Party in the debating chamber in the British House of Commons, saw the overwhelming majority of the Irish people express their wish for independence from Britain. Unfortunately the legislation for Home Rule (self government within the British empire) was defeated in the British parliament in 1886 and 1893.
After continuous parliamentarian agitation, there became support from the British Liberal government for Home Rule in 1911. Again the wishes of the majority of the Irish people were denied. The Conservative Party joined with the anti-Home Rule forces in Ireland. These forces were and are known as the Unionists.
At this particular period of time in Ireland, there was very little armament by nationalists. However, the Unionists and Conservative Party organized the importation of arms and formed an armed group pledged to resist Home Rule. This group known as the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) was established in 1913.
In November of 1913 the Irish Volunteers were established to "secure and maintain the rights and liberties common to all the people of Ireland." The Irish Volunteers or Oglaigh na hEireann in Irish, later became known as the Irish Republican Army after the Volunteers joined with James Connoly's Citizen Army.
In 1914 the UVF was allowed to import arms unhindered by the British crown forces. When the Liberal government made plans to use the British army , if necessary, against the UVF, senior officers rose in mutiny and the Liberal government backed down. The Irish Volunteers too imported a small quantity of arms and marched through the streets of Dublin displaying the fact they were now armed like the UVF. However they were attacked by crown forces who shot several civilians in the streets.
When World War I broke out later that year, the Home Rule Party tried to persuade the Irish Volunteers to join Britain's army and fight for Britain in the war. This act led to the splitting of the Irish Volunteers, one section joining the British army and the other remaining dedicated to plan for an armed uprising during the war.
This uprising was held on Easter in 1916. The rising, known as the Easter Rising was a defining event in the history of Irish independence. The rising was led by a man named Patrick Pearse. Along with his fellow nationalists, Tomas J. Clarke, Sean Mac Diarmada, P.H Pearse, James Connolly, Tomas MacDonagh, Eamonn Ceannt, and Joseph Plunkett, signed and wrote the Poblacht Na H Eireann, the Proclamation of the Provisional Government of the Irish Republic. The rising was crushed after a week and all six men and ten other leaders were executed by the British government.
By this time nationalists no longer had faith in the Home Rule party. They had seen years of parliamentary agitation defeated by the threat of force; they had seen Home Rule leaders submit to the British government with plans to partition Ireland; they had seen thousands of Irishmen killed on the Western Front in trenches in France on the promise that their sacrifices would win the Irish people Home Rule, while unionists who joined the British army were promised the opposite; they had seen the execution of their 1916 leaders and heroes. In 1918 they saw the threat of conscription on the people of Ireland. By an overwhelming majority in the General Election of that year the Irish people voted for the Sinn Fein party which means We Ourselves. This party sought to establish the Irish Republic.
The Irish Volunteers were reorganized in 1917 and had a wide range of popular support. But it not until 1919 that a widespread and effective guerrilla war campaign began. Once again this occurs after the British government had ignored an opportunity to recognize the democratically expressed wishes of the Irish people.
In January 1919 an independent Irish parliament - Dáil Eireann - was established and declared the sovereignty of Ireland as a Republic. They formed independent institutions including a functioning central government, ministerial departments and republican courts of law. The Irish Volunteers became the Army of the Republic, under the Minister of Defense and pledging its allegiance to Dáil Eireann.
The response from the British government was to ban all of these new Irish institutions and declare war on the newly founded Irish democracy. Three mayors of Irish cities, all members of the IRA, were killed; martial law was declared through nearly half the county; streets, shops, and factories in several towns were burned to the ground; there were executions in prisons and torture in interment camps. In response the IRA waged an effective guerrilla war campaign against British troops, known as the Auxiliaries and the Black and Tans.
The guerrilla tactics used during this time later became textbook examples of this type of warfare. Tom Barry's Flying Column in Cork was the most notable battalion in creating these tactics.
In 1921 the British government agreed to negotiate with Irish leaders. With the negotiations the IRA called a truce in July. Eamon DeValera and the other Irish leaders sent a man named Michael Collins to negotiate the negotiations with the British government. The treaty negotiated did not give Ireland a republic, but a Irish Free State. Ireland would have it's own government, but would have to swear allegiance to the British crown. The Treaty also partitioned Northern Ireland.
The Treaty split nationalist Ireland. The IRA and Dáil Eireann split in 1922. This split caused a civil war between those who supported the Treaty and those who wanted a united and independent Ireland. The members of the IRA who supported the Treaty became the Irish Free State Army.
In May 1923 the Civil War ended when the IRA order to its Volunteers to dump its arms in its response to surrender to the Irish Free State Army.
Throughout the 1920's the IRA reorganized and once again attracted a large following. The organization played a key role in the election of the first government of the Fianna Fáil party - which had emerged from the IRA - under Eamon De Valera in 1932.
During the 1930's the IRA sought a successful political and milliary strategy, but this was hindered by splits in the ranks. The short lived Republican Congress of 1934 sought to give left wing political expression in to republican ideals. Among the Chiefs of Staff of the IRA in the 1930s was Sean MacBride, who was later a distinguished international human rights lawyer and winner of the Nobel and Lenin Peace Prizes.
In 1939 the IRA began a bombing campaign in English cities. These bombings were few and were over by 1941. In 1941, internment without trial was introduced in both Northern and Southern Ireland to those caught in IRA activities.
On April 18, 1949 John A. Costello, the prime minister of Ireland cut all ties with Britain and declared Ireland an independent republic. That same year the IRA issued an order which forbade military action against the forces of the new republic. The early 1950's saw an anti-partition campaign conducted by the Irish government and supported by all parties in parliament. Its ineffectiveness helped bring about a renewal of the IRA.
In the early to mid 50s raids for arms were carried out by the IRA on British installations in the Six Counties and in Britain. This was in preparation for an armed campaign which was conducted between 1956 and 1962. This campaign was mainly confined to border areas where the campaign saw attacks on border posts and other British military installations.
After the border campaign ended, the leadership of the IRA decided that support should be given to highlight the status of second-class citizenship for nationalists in the Six Counties (Northern Ireland). The emergence of the Civil Rights Movement in the mid-1960s was to transform the political situation. Their demand for basic rights - to jobs, housing, and voting put the Six County state into a state of Crisis. The peaceful demand for civil rights was met with violence from the forces of the sectarian state.
In Belfast and Derry in 1969 nationalist districts were attacked by state police, the RUC (Royal Ulster Constabulary), and and by unionist mobs. The demand for defense made by the nationalist communities could not be met by the IRA because, throughout the 1960's the leadership had abandoned planning and preparation for a future armed campaign, as the IRA had been run down.
The events of 1969 produced a split in the IRA. Once more the peaceful pursuit of change in the form of the Civil Rights Movement had been met with violence from the British state and so it was that the armed struggle gained support again as the republican strategy.
Through 1970 and '71 the IRA gained an increasing support in the nationalist districts in Northern Ireland and among nationalists through Ireland. The acceleration of support increased with the introduction of internment without trial in1971. IRA Volunteers carried out a campaign of urban guerrilla warfare against the British army and economic bombings in Northern cities and towns.
The conflict in the Northern Ireland intensified. In England the IRA carried out a bombing campaign. Truces were called in 1972, '74, and '75 but they all fell through.
Despite the British military saturation of urban areas and widespread deployment of troops in the countryside, the IRA, with wide support in nationalist communities, continued to wage their campaign, making some parts of the country roads inaccessible British forces. In August of 1979 the IRA inflicted its greatest number of casualties on the British Army in a single incident since 1919-21 when it ambushed and killed 18 British soldiers at Warrenpoint, in County Down.
In the 1976, Britain refused to recognize IRA prisoners as prisoners of war any longer, but as criminals. This led to protest in the prisons. One of these forms of protest was a hunger strike taking the lives of 10 prisoners
Throughout the 1970s and 1980s confidential contacts were maintained between British government and IRA representatives. These channels relatively proved to be unproductive. Both the IRA and the British army publicly admitted that military victory for either side was not possible.
A cessation of military operations was announced in August 1994 by the IRA. This was the result of the Irish Peace Initiative which was initiated by the Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams and SDLP leader John Hume and support by the Irish government. This cause yet another split in the IRA. The members that left were opposed to the cease fire. They formed their own group, the C.I.R.A or Continuity IRA, this group has never stood by any cease fire. They share their allegiance to Republican Sinn Féin.
Now in 1998, there is a new peace agreement that takes is a big step in the direction of peace. This new agreement contains measures on human and civil rights, policing, prisoners and other issues that have been sources of tension and conflict between the two main traditions in the North. It is the hopes of many that this agreement may finally bring peace to the troubled land of Northern Ireland.
For a summary of the agreement click on the agreement icon.
Irish Political Resource Discussion Forum: I.R.A
Are the people who are a part of the Irish Republican Army patriots or criminals?
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