Official IRA
Encyclopedia
The Official Irish Republican Army or Official IRA (informally "the Officials" or "the Stickies") is an Irish republican
paramilitary
group whose goal was to create a "32-county workers' republic" in Ireland
. It emerged from a split in the Irish Republican Army
in December 1969, shortly after the beginning of "The Troubles
". The other group emerging from this split was the Provisional Irish Republican Army
. Both groups continued to refer to themselves as the Irish Republican Army and rejected the political legitimacy of the other. It engaged in military action against the British Army
until May 1972. Since then it has engaged in feuds with both the Provisional IRA and the Irish National Liberation Army
, a radical splinter group formed in 1974. In later years, it was accused of involvement in organised crime
.
The Official IRA was associated with Official Sinn Féin, later renamed Sinn Féin the Workers Party and then The Workers' Party, and now known as the Workers' Party of Ireland
.
, soon followed by a parallel split in Sinn Féin
, was the result of the dissatisfaction of more traditional and militant republicans
at the political direction taken by the leadership. The particular object of their discontent was Sinn Féin's ending of its policy of abstentionism
in the Republic of Ireland
. This issue is a key one in republican ideology, as traditional republicans regarded the Irish state as illegitimate and maintained that their loyalty was due only to the Irish Republic
declared in 1916 and in their view, represented by the IRA Army Council.
During the 1960s, the republican movement under the leadership of Cathal Goulding
radically re-assessed their ideology and tactics after the dismal failure of the IRA's Border Campaign
in the years 1956–62. They were heavily influenced by popular front
ideology and drew close to communist thinking. A key intermediary body was the Communist Party of Great Britain
's organisation for Irish exiles, the Connolly Association
. The Marxist analysis was that the conflict in Northern Ireland was a "bourgeois
nationalist" one between the Protestant
and Catholic working class
es, fomented and continued by the ruling class
. Its effect was to depress wages, since worker could be set against worker. They concluded that the first step on the road to a 32-county
socialist republic in Ireland
was the "democratisation" of Northern Ireland
(i.e., the removal of discrimination against Catholics) and radicalisation of the southern working class. This would allow "class politics" to develop, eventually resulting in a challenge to the hegemony of both "British imperialism" and the respective unionist and nationalist establishments north and south of the Irish border.
Goulding and those close to him argued that, in the context of sectarian division in Northern Ireland, a military campaign against the British presence would be counter-productive, since it would delay the day when the workers would unite around social and economic issues.
The sense that the IRA seemed to be drifting away from its conventional republican and nationalist
roots into Marxism
angered more traditional republicans. The Arms Crisis
provided evidence that some members of the Irish (Fianna Fáil
) government had attempted to supply arms and funds to groups in Northern Ireland that were not left-wing. The radicals viewed Northern Protestants with unionist views as "fellow Irishmen deluded by bourgeois loyalties, who needed to be engaged in dialectic
al debate". As a result, they were reluctant to use force to defend Catholic areas of Belfast
when they came under attack from loyalists
—a role the IRA had performed since the 1920s. Since the civil rights
marches began in 1968, there had been many cases of street violence. The Royal Ulster Constabulary
had been shown on television in undisciplined baton charges, and had already killed three non-combatant civilians, one a child. The Orange Order
's "marching season" during the summer of 1969 had been characterised by violence on both sides, which culminated in the three-day "Battle of the Bogside
" in Derry
.
and Derry
, with eight deaths, six of them Catholics, and whole streets ablaze. On August 14–15 loyalists burned out several Catholic streets in Belfast in the Northern Ireland riots of August 1969. IRA units offered resistance, however very few weapons were available for the defence of Catholic areas. Many local IRA figures, and ex-IRA members such as Joe Cahill
and Billy McKee
, were incensed by what they saw as the leadership's inaction and in September, they announced that they would no longer be taking orders from the Goulding leadership.
Discontent was not confined to the northern IRA units. In the south also, such figures as Ruairí Ó Brádaigh
and Sean MacStiofain opposed both the leadership's proposed recognition of Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.. This increasing political divergence led to a formal split at the 1969 IRA Convention, held in December. At a second convention, a group consisting of Seán Mac Stiofáin
, Dáithí Ó Conaill
, Ruairí Ó Brádaigh
, Joe Cahill
, Paddy Mulcahy, Leo Martin, and Sean Tracey, were elected as the "Provisional" Army Council. Their supporters included Seamus Twomey
. The split resulted from a vote at the first IRA Convention where a two-thirds majority voted that Republicans should take their seats if elected to the British, Irish or Northern Ireland Parliaments.
Accounts at that time suggest that the IRA split roughly in half, with those loyal to the Cathal Goulding led "Official IRA" prominent in some areas while the Provisional IRA were prominent in other areas. IRA historian J. Bowyer Bell stated, with respect to the Provisional IRA, that, "There was some support in Belfast, although less than claimed" (p. 367). A strong area for the Official IRA in Belfast was the Lower Falls and Markets district, which were under the command of Billy McMillen
. Other OIRA units were located in Derry, Newry
, Strabane
, Dublin, and Wicklow
and other parts of Belfast. However, the Provisionals would rapidly become the dominant faction, both as a result of intensive recruitment and because some Official IRA units (such as the Strabane
company) later defected to them.
There was a similar ideological split in Sinn Féin after a contentious 1970 Sinn Féin Ard Fheis
. The then leadership of Sinn Féin
passed a motion to recognise the Parliaments in London, Dublin and Stormont but failed to attain the prerequisite two-thirds majority necessary to overturn Sinn Féin's constitutional opposition to 'partitionist' assemblies. Those defeated in the motion walked out, to form Provisional Sinn Féin. The remaining party under the leadership of Tomás Mac Giolla was to contest elections first as Official Sinn Féín, then Sinn Féin The Workers' Party and aligned itself with Cathal Goulding
's Official IRA, as the Marxist faction came to be known. The party retained the historic Sinn Féin headquarters of Gardiner Street, thus giving legitimacy to it, in the eyes of some, to be the legitimate successor of that party and briefly known popularly as Sinn Féin Gardiner Place. Whereas those supportive of Seán Mac Stiofáin
's "Provisional Army Council" came to be known popularly as the Provisional IRA and Provisional Sinn Féin or Sinn Féin Kevin St. That party contested elections as "Sinn Féin".
The Officials were known as the "Stickies" because they sold stick-on lilies
to commemorate the Easter Rising
; the Provisionals, by contrast, were known as "pinnies" (pejoratively "pinheads") because they produced pinned-on lilies. The term Stickies stuck, though pinnies (and pinheads) disappeared, in favour of the nickname "Provos" and for a time, "Provies".
The paper-and-pin Easter Lily of the IRA was the traditional commemorative badge of the Easter Rising, whereas the self-adhesive Easter Lily of the Officials was a novel invention, symbolic of the divergence of opinion between them.
for example, joined the Official IRA in 1970, unaware that there had been a split and only later joined the Provisionals. The Provisionals launched an armed campaign against the British presence in Northern Ireland. Despite the reluctance of Cathal Goulding and the OIRA leadership, their volunteers on the ground were inevitably drawn into the violence. The Official IRA's first major confrontation with the British Army came in the Falls Curfew
of July 1970, when over 3,000 British soldiers raided the Lower Falls area for arms, leading to three days of gun battles. The Official IRA lost a large amount of weaponry in the incident and their members on the ground blamed the Provisionals for starting the firing and then leaving them alone to face the British. The bad feeling left by this and other incidents led to a feud between the two IRAs in 1970, with several shootings carried out by either side. The two IRA factions arranged a truce between them after the OIRA killing of Provisional activist, and Belfast brigade D-Company commander, Charlie Hughes (a cousin of the well known Republican Brendan Hughes
).
Soviet defector Vasili Mitrokhin
alleged in the 1990s that the Goulding leadership sought, in 1969, a small quantity of arms (roughly 70 rifles, along with some hand guns and explosives) from the KGB
. The request was approved and the weapons arrived in Ireland in 1972. This has not been independently verified however. On the whole, the OIRA had a more restricted level of activity than the Provisionals. Unlike the Provisionals, it did not establish de facto control over large Catholic areas of Belfast and Derry and characterised its violence as "defensive". However it retained a strong presence in certain localities, notably the Lower Falls, Andersonstown, Turf Lodge and the Markets areas of Belfast.
In August 1971, after the introduction of internment
without trial, OIRA units fought numerous gun battles with British troops who were deployed to arrest paramilitary suspects. Most notably the Official IRA company in the Lower Falls, led by Joe McCann
, held off an incursion into the area by over 600 British troops. In December 1971, the Official IRA killed Ulster Unionist Party
Senator John Barnhill at his home in Strabane
. This was the first murder of a politician in Ireland since the assassination of Free State
Minister for Justice Kevin O'Higgins
in 1927. In February 1972, the organisation also made an attempt on the life of Unionist politician John Taylor. On Bloody Sunday
, an OIRA man in Derry
is believed to have fired several shots with a revolver at British troops, after they had shot dead 13 nationalist demonstrators—the only republican shots fired on the day. The anger caused by Bloody Sunday in the nationalist community was such that the Official IRA announced that it would now be launching an "offensive" against the British forces.
However, the OIRA declared a ceasefire
later in the same year. The Official IRA ceasefire followed a number of armed actions which had been politically damaging. The organisation bombed
the Aldershot
headquarters of the Parachute Regiment in revenge for Bloody Sunday, but killed only six civilians and a Roman Catholic army chaplain. After the killing of William Best, a British soldier, home on leave in Derry, the OIRA declared a ceasefire. In addition, the death of several militant OIRA figures such as Joe McCann, in confrontations with British soldiers, enabled the Goulding leadership to call off their armed campaign, which they had never supported wholeheartedly.
In 1974, radical elements within the organisation who objected to the ceasefire, led by Seamus Costello
, established the Irish National Liberation Army
. Another feud ensued in the first half of 1975, during which three INLA and five OIRA members were killed. The dead included prominent members of both organisations including Costello and the OIRA O/C, Billy McMillen
. However, from the mid-1970s onwards the Official Republican Movement became increasingly focussed on achieving its aims through left-wing constitutional politics. This however did not stop sporadic paramilitary activity from the OIRA who on 8 September 1979 killed Hugh O'Halloran in a punishment beating in the Ballymurphy area of Belfast. O' Halloran was beaten to death with hurley sticks
. The two OIRA men who carried out the killing turned themselves in to the RUC; both were convicted and sentenced to imprisonment in the Maze. The army lost a number of members who gradually drifted away from the ceasefire up to shortly after the 1981 hunger strike, many either joining the Provisional IRA or the INLA or some simply dropping out.
From 1981 on, Sinn Féin the Workers Party, renamed the Workers' Party
the following year, had some success in the Republic of Ireland, but little in the North.
Throughout the 1980s, allegations that the Official IRA remained in existence and was engaged in criminal activity appeared in the Irish press. In June 1982 the feud with the INLA flared again after OIRA member James Flynn, the alleged assassin of Seamus Costello, was shot dead by the INLA in Dublin. In December 1985 five men, including a Mr. Anthony McDonagh, pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy to defraud the Inland Revenue in Northern Ireland—McDonagh was described in court as an Official IRA Commander. In February 1992 a British Spotlight programme alleged that the Official IRA was still active and involved in widespread racketeering and armed robberies.
These eventually proved a considerable political embarrassment to the Workers' Party, and in 1992 the leadership proposed amendments to the party constitution which would, inter alia, effectively allow it to purge members suspected of involvement in the Official IRA. This proposal failed to obtain the required two-thirds support at the party conference that year, and as a result the leadership, including six of the party's seven members of Dáil Éireann
, left to establish a new party, later named Democratic Left
.
In 1995, some Northern based former Official IRA members in the Newry area launched a "re-founded" Official Republican Movement, intended to pursue the socialist republican politics which the Officials espoused in the 1970s. They are not thought to advocate the use of violence however and have no connection with the Workers' Party.
Most recently, there have been allegations of criminality against former senior Official IRA figure Sean Garland
, who was accused in 2005 by the United States
of helping to produce and circulate counterfeit US dollars
allegedly printed in North Korea
.
on 8 February 2010, coming in the last 24 hours of the commission's existence. The decommissioning was completed at the same time as that of the republican Irish National Liberation Army
and the loyalist UDA South East Antrim Brigade
. The step was described by British Prime Minister
Gordon Brown
as a "central part of moving Northern Ireland from violence to peace".
's CAIN project, the OIRA was responsible for 52 killings during the Troubles
. Twenty-three of its victims were civilians, 17 were members of the security forces, 11 were members of republican paramilitaries (including three of its own members), and one was a member of a loyalist paramilitary.
Irish Republicanism
Irish republicanism is an ideology based on the belief that all of Ireland should be an independent republic.In 1801, under the Act of Union, the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Ireland merged to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland...
paramilitary
Paramilitary
A paramilitary is a force whose function and organization are similar to those of a professional military, but which is not considered part of a state's formal armed forces....
group whose goal was to create a "32-county workers' republic" in Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
. It emerged from a split in the Irish Republican Army
Irish Republican Army (1922–1969)
The original Irish Republican Army fought a guerrilla war against British rule in Ireland in the Irish War of Independence 1919–1921. Following the signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty on 6 December 1921, the IRA in the 26 counties that were to become the Irish Free State split between supporters and...
in December 1969, shortly after the beginning of "The Troubles
The Troubles
The Troubles was a period of ethno-political conflict in Northern Ireland which spilled over at various times into England, the Republic of Ireland, and mainland Europe. The duration of the Troubles is conventionally dated from the late 1960s and considered by many to have ended with the Belfast...
". The other group emerging from this split was the Provisional Irish Republican Army
Provisional Irish Republican Army
The Provisional Irish Republican Army is an Irish republican paramilitary organisation whose aim was to remove Northern Ireland from the United Kingdom and bring about a socialist republic within a united Ireland by force of arms and political persuasion...
. Both groups continued to refer to themselves as the Irish Republican Army and rejected the political legitimacy of the other. It engaged in military action against the British Army
British Army
The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...
until May 1972. Since then it has engaged in feuds with both the Provisional IRA and the Irish National Liberation Army
Irish National Liberation Army
The Irish National Liberation Army or INLA is an Irish republican socialist paramilitary group that was formed on 8 December 1974. Its goal is to remove Northern Ireland from the United Kingdom and create a socialist united Ireland....
, a radical splinter group formed in 1974. In later years, it was accused of involvement in organised crime
Organized crime
Organized crime or criminal organizations are transnational, national, or local groupings of highly centralized enterprises run by criminals for the purpose of engaging in illegal activity, most commonly for monetary profit. Some criminal organizations, such as terrorist organizations, are...
.
The Official IRA was associated with Official Sinn Féin, later renamed Sinn Féin the Workers Party and then The Workers' Party, and now known as the Workers' Party of Ireland
Workers' Party of Ireland
The Workers' Party is a left-wing republican political party in Ireland. Originating in the Sinn Féin organisation founded in 1905 by Arthur Griffith, it took its current form in 1970 after a split within the party, adopting its current name in 1982....
.
The shift to the left
The split in the Irish Republican ArmyIrish Republican Army
The Irish Republican Army was an Irish republican revolutionary military organisation. It was descended from the Irish Volunteers, an organisation established on 25 November 1913 that staged the Easter Rising in April 1916...
, soon followed by a parallel split in Sinn Féin
Sinn Féin
Sinn Féin is a left wing, Irish republican political party in Ireland. The name is Irish for "ourselves" or "we ourselves", although it is frequently mistranslated as "ourselves alone". Originating in the Sinn Féin organisation founded in 1905 by Arthur Griffith, it took its current form in 1970...
, was the result of the dissatisfaction of more traditional and militant republicans
Irish Republicanism
Irish republicanism is an ideology based on the belief that all of Ireland should be an independent republic.In 1801, under the Act of Union, the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Ireland merged to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland...
at the political direction taken by the leadership. The particular object of their discontent was Sinn Féin's ending of its policy of abstentionism
Abstentionism
Abstentionism is standing for election to a deliberative assembly while refusing to take up any seats won or otherwise participate in the assembly's business. Abstentionism differs from an election boycott in that abstentionists participate in the election itself...
in the Republic of Ireland
Republic of Ireland
Ireland , described as the Republic of Ireland , is a sovereign state in Europe occupying approximately five-sixths of the island of the same name. Its capital is Dublin. Ireland, which had a population of 4.58 million in 2011, is a constitutional republic governed as a parliamentary democracy,...
. This issue is a key one in republican ideology, as traditional republicans regarded the Irish state as illegitimate and maintained that their loyalty was due only to the Irish Republic
Irish Republic
The Irish Republic was a revolutionary state that declared its independence from Great Britain in January 1919. It established a legislature , a government , a court system and a police force...
declared in 1916 and in their view, represented by the IRA Army Council.
During the 1960s, the republican movement under the leadership of Cathal Goulding
Cathal Goulding
Cathal Goulding was Chief of Staff of the Irish Republican Army and the Official IRA.One of seven children born into a republican family in East Arran Street in the north inner city of Dublin, Goulding was involved as teenager in Fianna Éireann, the IRA youth wing which he joined with his...
radically re-assessed their ideology and tactics after the dismal failure of the IRA's Border Campaign
Border Campaign (IRA)
The Border Campaign was a campaign of guerrilla warfare carried out by the Irish Republican Army against targets in Northern Ireland, with the aim of overthrowing British rule there and creating a united Ireland.Popularly referred to as the Border Campaign, it was also referred to as the...
in the years 1956–62. They were heavily influenced by popular front
Popular front
A popular front is a broad coalition of different political groupings, often made up of leftists and centrists. Being very broad, they can sometimes include centrist and liberal forces as well as socialist and communist groups...
ideology and drew close to communist thinking. A key intermediary body was the Communist Party of Great Britain
Communist Party of Great Britain
The Communist Party of Great Britain was the largest communist party in Great Britain, although it never became a mass party like those in France and Italy. It existed from 1920 to 1991.-Formation:...
's organisation for Irish exiles, the Connolly Association
Connolly Association
The Connolly Association is an organisation based among Irish emigrants in Britain which supports the aims of Irish republicanism. It takes its name from James Connolly, an socialist republican, born in Edinburgh, Scotland and executed by the British Army in 1916 for his part in the Easter Rising...
. The Marxist analysis was that the conflict in Northern Ireland was a "bourgeois
Bourgeoisie
In sociology and political science, bourgeoisie describes a range of groups across history. In the Western world, between the late 18th century and the present day, the bourgeoisie is a social class "characterized by their ownership of capital and their related culture." A member of the...
nationalist" one between the Protestant
Protestantism
Protestantism is one of the three major groupings within Christianity. It is a movement that began in Germany in the early 16th century as a reaction against medieval Roman Catholic doctrines and practices, especially in regards to salvation, justification, and ecclesiology.The doctrines of the...
and Catholic working class
Working class
Working class is a term used in the social sciences and in ordinary conversation to describe those employed in lower tier jobs , often extending to those in unemployment or otherwise possessing below-average incomes...
es, fomented and continued by the ruling class
Ruling class
The term ruling class refers to the social class of a given society that decides upon and sets that society's political policy - assuming there is one such particular class in the given society....
. Its effect was to depress wages, since worker could be set against worker. They concluded that the first step on the road to a 32-county
Counties of Ireland
The counties of Ireland are sub-national divisions used for the purposes of geographic demarcation and local government. Closely related to the county is the County corporate which covered towns or cities which were deemed to be important enough to be independent from their counties. A county...
socialist republic in Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
was the "democratisation" of Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...
(i.e., the removal of discrimination against Catholics) and radicalisation of the southern working class. This would allow "class politics" to develop, eventually resulting in a challenge to the hegemony of both "British imperialism" and the respective unionist and nationalist establishments north and south of the Irish border.
Goulding and those close to him argued that, in the context of sectarian division in Northern Ireland, a military campaign against the British presence would be counter-productive, since it would delay the day when the workers would unite around social and economic issues.
The sense that the IRA seemed to be drifting away from its conventional republican and nationalist
Irish nationalism
Irish nationalism manifests itself in political and social movements and in sentiment inspired by a love for Irish culture, language and history, and as a sense of pride in Ireland and in the Irish people...
roots into Marxism
Marxism
Marxism is an economic and sociopolitical worldview and method of socioeconomic inquiry that centers upon a materialist interpretation of history, a dialectical view of social change, and an analysis and critique of the development of capitalism. Marxism was pioneered in the early to mid 19th...
angered more traditional republicans. The Arms Crisis
Arms Crisis
The Arms Crisis or Arms Trial was a political scandal in the Republic of Ireland in 1970, when two cabinet ministers — Charles Haughey and Neil Blaney — were sacked for allegedly attempting to illegally import arms for the Irish Republican Army in Northern Ireland.-Background:The...
provided evidence that some members of the Irish (Fianna Fáil
Fianna Fáil
Fianna Fáil – The Republican Party , more commonly known as Fianna Fáil is a centrist political party in the Republic of Ireland, founded on 23 March 1926. Fianna Fáil's name is traditionally translated into English as Soldiers of Destiny, although a more accurate rendition would be Warriors of Fál...
) government had attempted to supply arms and funds to groups in Northern Ireland that were not left-wing. The radicals viewed Northern Protestants with unionist views as "fellow Irishmen deluded by bourgeois loyalties, who needed to be engaged in dialectic
Dialectic
Dialectic is a method of argument for resolving disagreement that has been central to Indic and European philosophy since antiquity. The word dialectic originated in Ancient Greece, and was made popular by Plato in the Socratic dialogues...
al debate". As a result, they were reluctant to use force to defend Catholic areas of Belfast
Belfast
Belfast is the capital of and largest city in Northern Ireland. By population, it is the 14th biggest city in the United Kingdom and second biggest on the island of Ireland . It is the seat of the devolved government and legislative Northern Ireland Assembly...
when they came under attack from loyalists
Ulster loyalism
Ulster loyalism is an ideology that is opposed to a united Ireland. It can mean either support for upholding Northern Ireland's status as a constituent part of the United Kingdom , support for Northern Ireland independence, or support for loyalist paramilitaries...
—a role the IRA had performed since the 1920s. Since the civil rights
Civil rights
Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from unwarranted infringement by governments and private organizations, and ensure one's ability to participate in the civil and political life of the state without discrimination or repression.Civil rights include...
marches began in 1968, there had been many cases of street violence. The Royal Ulster Constabulary
Royal Ulster Constabulary
The Royal Ulster Constabulary was the name of the police force in Northern Ireland from 1922 to 2000. Following the awarding of the George Cross in 2000, it was subsequently known as the Royal Ulster Constabulary GC. It was founded on 1 June 1922 out of the Royal Irish Constabulary...
had been shown on television in undisciplined baton charges, and had already killed three non-combatant civilians, one a child. The Orange Order
Orange Institution
The Orange Institution is a Protestant fraternal organisation based mainly in Northern Ireland and Scotland, though it has lodges throughout the Commonwealth and United States. The Institution was founded in 1796 near the village of Loughgall in County Armagh, Ireland...
's "marching season" during the summer of 1969 had been characterised by violence on both sides, which culminated in the three-day "Battle of the Bogside
Battle of the Bogside
The Battle of the Bogside was a very large communal riot that took place during 12–14 August 1969 in Derry, Northern Ireland. The fighting was between residents of the Bogside area and the Royal Ulster Constabulary .The rioting erupted after the RUC attempted to disperse Irish nationalists who...
" in Derry
Derry
Derry or Londonderry is the second-biggest city in Northern Ireland and the fourth-biggest city on the island of Ireland. The name Derry is an anglicisation of the Irish name Doire or Doire Cholmcille meaning "oak-wood of Colmcille"...
.
August 1969 riots
The critical moment came in August 1969 when there was a major outbreak of intercommunal violence in BelfastBelfast
Belfast is the capital of and largest city in Northern Ireland. By population, it is the 14th biggest city in the United Kingdom and second biggest on the island of Ireland . It is the seat of the devolved government and legislative Northern Ireland Assembly...
and Derry
Derry
Derry or Londonderry is the second-biggest city in Northern Ireland and the fourth-biggest city on the island of Ireland. The name Derry is an anglicisation of the Irish name Doire or Doire Cholmcille meaning "oak-wood of Colmcille"...
, with eight deaths, six of them Catholics, and whole streets ablaze. On August 14–15 loyalists burned out several Catholic streets in Belfast in the Northern Ireland riots of August 1969. IRA units offered resistance, however very few weapons were available for the defence of Catholic areas. Many local IRA figures, and ex-IRA members such as Joe Cahill
Joe Cahill
Joe Cahill was a prominent Irish republican and former chief of staff of the Provisional Irish Republican Army .- Background :In May 1920, Cahill was born in Divis Street in West Belfast, Ireland, where his parents had been neighbours of the Scottish-born Irish revolutionary James Connolly.Cahill...
and Billy McKee
Billy McKee
Billy McKee is an Irish republican and was a founding member and former leader of the Provisional Irish Republican Army .-Early life:McKee was born in Belfast in the early 1920s, and joined the Irish Republican Army in 1939. During the Second World War, the IRA carried out a number of armed...
, were incensed by what they saw as the leadership's inaction and in September, they announced that they would no longer be taking orders from the Goulding leadership.
Discontent was not confined to the northern IRA units. In the south also, such figures as Ruairí Ó Brádaigh
Ruairí Ó Brádaigh
Ruairí Ó Brádaigh is an Irish republican. He is a former chief of staff of the Irish Republican Army , former president of Sinn Féin and former president of Republican Sinn Féin.-Early life:...
and Sean MacStiofain opposed both the leadership's proposed recognition of Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.. This increasing political divergence led to a formal split at the 1969 IRA Convention, held in December. At a second convention, a group consisting of Seán Mac Stiofáin
Seán Mac Stíofáin
Seán Mac Stíofáin was an Irish republican paramilitary activist born in London, who became associated with the republican movement in Ireland after serving in the Royal Air Force...
, Dáithí Ó Conaill
Dáithí Ó Conaill
Dáithí Ó Conaill was an Irish republican, a member of the IRA Army Council, vice-president of Sinn Féin and Republican Sinn Féin. He was also the first chief of staff of the Continuity IRA.-Joins IRA:...
, Ruairí Ó Brádaigh
Ruairí Ó Brádaigh
Ruairí Ó Brádaigh is an Irish republican. He is a former chief of staff of the Irish Republican Army , former president of Sinn Féin and former president of Republican Sinn Féin.-Early life:...
, Joe Cahill
Joe Cahill
Joe Cahill was a prominent Irish republican and former chief of staff of the Provisional Irish Republican Army .- Background :In May 1920, Cahill was born in Divis Street in West Belfast, Ireland, where his parents had been neighbours of the Scottish-born Irish revolutionary James Connolly.Cahill...
, Paddy Mulcahy, Leo Martin, and Sean Tracey, were elected as the "Provisional" Army Council. Their supporters included Seamus Twomey
Seamus Twomey
Seamus Twomey was an Irish republican and twice chief of staff of the Provisional IRA.-Biography:Born in Belfast, Twomey lived at 6 Sevastopol Street in the Falls district...
. The split resulted from a vote at the first IRA Convention where a two-thirds majority voted that Republicans should take their seats if elected to the British, Irish or Northern Ireland Parliaments.
Accounts at that time suggest that the IRA split roughly in half, with those loyal to the Cathal Goulding led "Official IRA" prominent in some areas while the Provisional IRA were prominent in other areas. IRA historian J. Bowyer Bell stated, with respect to the Provisional IRA, that, "There was some support in Belfast, although less than claimed" (p. 367). A strong area for the Official IRA in Belfast was the Lower Falls and Markets district, which were under the command of Billy McMillen
Billy McMillen
Billy McMillen was an Irish republican activist and an officer of the Official Irish Republican Army...
. Other OIRA units were located in Derry, Newry
Newry
Newry is a city in Northern Ireland. The River Clanrye, which runs through the city, formed the historic border between County Armagh and County Down. It is from Belfast and from Dublin. Newry had a population of 27,433 at the 2001 Census, while Newry and Mourne Council Area had a population...
, Strabane
Strabane
Strabane , historically spelt Straban,is a town in west County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. It contains the headquarters of Strabane District Council....
, Dublin, and Wicklow
Wicklow
Wicklow) is the county town of County Wicklow in Ireland. Located south of Dublin on the east coast of the island, it has a population of 10,070 according to the 2006 census. The town is situated to the east of the N11 route between Dublin and Wexford. Wicklow is also connected to the rail...
and other parts of Belfast. However, the Provisionals would rapidly become the dominant faction, both as a result of intensive recruitment and because some Official IRA units (such as the Strabane
Strabane
Strabane , historically spelt Straban,is a town in west County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. It contains the headquarters of Strabane District Council....
company) later defected to them.
There was a similar ideological split in Sinn Féin after a contentious 1970 Sinn Féin Ard Fheis
Ard Fheis
Ardfheis or Ard Fheis is the name used by many Irish political parties for their annual party conference. The term was first used by Conradh na Gaeilge, the Irish language cultural organisation, for its annual convention....
. The then leadership of Sinn Féin
Sinn Féin
Sinn Féin is a left wing, Irish republican political party in Ireland. The name is Irish for "ourselves" or "we ourselves", although it is frequently mistranslated as "ourselves alone". Originating in the Sinn Féin organisation founded in 1905 by Arthur Griffith, it took its current form in 1970...
passed a motion to recognise the Parliaments in London, Dublin and Stormont but failed to attain the prerequisite two-thirds majority necessary to overturn Sinn Féin's constitutional opposition to 'partitionist' assemblies. Those defeated in the motion walked out, to form Provisional Sinn Féin. The remaining party under the leadership of Tomás Mac Giolla was to contest elections first as Official Sinn Féín, then Sinn Féin The Workers' Party and aligned itself with Cathal Goulding
Cathal Goulding
Cathal Goulding was Chief of Staff of the Irish Republican Army and the Official IRA.One of seven children born into a republican family in East Arran Street in the north inner city of Dublin, Goulding was involved as teenager in Fianna Éireann, the IRA youth wing which he joined with his...
's Official IRA, as the Marxist faction came to be known. The party retained the historic Sinn Féin headquarters of Gardiner Street, thus giving legitimacy to it, in the eyes of some, to be the legitimate successor of that party and briefly known popularly as Sinn Féin Gardiner Place. Whereas those supportive of Seán Mac Stiofáin
Seán Mac Stíofáin
Seán Mac Stíofáin was an Irish republican paramilitary activist born in London, who became associated with the republican movement in Ireland after serving in the Royal Air Force...
's "Provisional Army Council" came to be known popularly as the Provisional IRA and Provisional Sinn Féin or Sinn Féin Kevin St. That party contested elections as "Sinn Féin".
The Officials were known as the "Stickies" because they sold stick-on lilies
Easter lily
An Easter lily may refer to a number of flowers connected with Easter:*Lilium longiflorum, scented lily, commonly called Easter lily in North America and other parts of the world, native to Japan...
to commemorate the Easter Rising
Easter Rising
The Easter Rising was an insurrection staged in Ireland during Easter Week, 1916. The Rising was mounted by Irish republicans with the aims of ending British rule in Ireland and establishing the Irish Republic at a time when the British Empire was heavily engaged in the First World War...
; the Provisionals, by contrast, were known as "pinnies" (pejoratively "pinheads") because they produced pinned-on lilies. The term Stickies stuck, though pinnies (and pinheads) disappeared, in favour of the nickname "Provos" and for a time, "Provies".
The paper-and-pin Easter Lily of the IRA was the traditional commemorative badge of the Easter Rising, whereas the self-adhesive Easter Lily of the Officials was a novel invention, symbolic of the divergence of opinion between them.
Impact of the split
Initially there was much confusion among republicans on the ground, Martin McGuinnessMartin McGuinness
James Martin Pacelli McGuinness is an Irish Sinn Féin politician and the current deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland. McGuinness was also the Sinn Féin candidate for the Irish presidential election, 2011. He was born in Derry, Northern Ireland....
for example, joined the Official IRA in 1970, unaware that there had been a split and only later joined the Provisionals. The Provisionals launched an armed campaign against the British presence in Northern Ireland. Despite the reluctance of Cathal Goulding and the OIRA leadership, their volunteers on the ground were inevitably drawn into the violence. The Official IRA's first major confrontation with the British Army came in the Falls Curfew
Falls Curfew
The Falls Curfew was a British Army operation during 3–5 July 1970 in an area along the Falls Road in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The operation started with a weapons search but quickly developed into rioting and gun battles between British soldiers and the Official Irish Republican Army...
of July 1970, when over 3,000 British soldiers raided the Lower Falls area for arms, leading to three days of gun battles. The Official IRA lost a large amount of weaponry in the incident and their members on the ground blamed the Provisionals for starting the firing and then leaving them alone to face the British. The bad feeling left by this and other incidents led to a feud between the two IRAs in 1970, with several shootings carried out by either side. The two IRA factions arranged a truce between them after the OIRA killing of Provisional activist, and Belfast brigade D-Company commander, Charlie Hughes (a cousin of the well known Republican Brendan Hughes
Brendan Hughes
Brendan Hughes , also known as "The Dark", was an Irish republican and former Officer Commanding of the Belfast Brigade of the Provisional Irish Republican Army...
).
Soviet defector Vasili Mitrokhin
Vasili Mitrokhin
Vasili Nikitich Mitrokhin was a Major and senior archivist for the Soviet Union's foreign intelligence service, the First Chief Directorate of the KGB, and co-author with Christopher Andrew of The Mitrokhin Archive: The KGB in Europe and the West, a massive account of Soviet intelligence...
alleged in the 1990s that the Goulding leadership sought, in 1969, a small quantity of arms (roughly 70 rifles, along with some hand guns and explosives) from the KGB
KGB
The KGB was the commonly used acronym for the . It was the national security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 until 1991, and was the premier internal security, intelligence, and secret police organization during that time.The State Security Agency of the Republic of Belarus currently uses the...
. The request was approved and the weapons arrived in Ireland in 1972. This has not been independently verified however. On the whole, the OIRA had a more restricted level of activity than the Provisionals. Unlike the Provisionals, it did not establish de facto control over large Catholic areas of Belfast and Derry and characterised its violence as "defensive". However it retained a strong presence in certain localities, notably the Lower Falls, Andersonstown, Turf Lodge and the Markets areas of Belfast.
In August 1971, after the introduction of internment
Internment
Internment is the imprisonment or confinement of people, commonly in large groups, without trial. The Oxford English Dictionary gives the meaning as: "The action of 'interning'; confinement within the limits of a country or place." Most modern usage is about individuals, and there is a distinction...
without trial, OIRA units fought numerous gun battles with British troops who were deployed to arrest paramilitary suspects. Most notably the Official IRA company in the Lower Falls, led by Joe McCann
Joe McCann
Joe McCann was an Irish Republican Army and later Official Irish Republican Army volunteer from Belfast. He was active in politics from the early 1960s and participated, as an Official IRA volunteer, in the early years of the Troubles in Northern Ireland. He was killed after being confronted by...
, held off an incursion into the area by over 600 British troops. In December 1971, the Official IRA killed Ulster Unionist Party
Ulster Unionist Party
The Ulster Unionist Party – sometimes referred to as the Official Unionist Party or, in a historic sense, simply the Unionist Party – is the more moderate of the two main unionist political parties in Northern Ireland...
Senator John Barnhill at his home in Strabane
Strabane
Strabane , historically spelt Straban,is a town in west County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. It contains the headquarters of Strabane District Council....
. This was the first murder of a politician in Ireland since the assassination of Free State
Irish Free State
The Irish Free State was the state established as a Dominion on 6 December 1922 under the Anglo-Irish Treaty, signed by the British government and Irish representatives exactly twelve months beforehand...
Minister for Justice Kevin O'Higgins
Kevin O'Higgins
Kevin Christopher O'Higgins was an Irish politician who served as Vice-President of the Executive Council and Minister for Justice. He was part of early nationalist Sinn Féin, before going on to become a prominent member of Cumann na nGaedheal. O'Higgins initiated the An Garda Síochána police force...
in 1927. In February 1972, the organisation also made an attempt on the life of Unionist politician John Taylor. On Bloody Sunday
Bloody Sunday (1972)
Bloody Sunday —sometimes called the Bogside Massacre—was an incident on 30 January 1972 in the Bogside area of Derry, Northern Ireland, in which twenty-six unarmed civil rights protesters and bystanders were shot by soldiers of the British Army...
, an OIRA man in Derry
Derry
Derry or Londonderry is the second-biggest city in Northern Ireland and the fourth-biggest city on the island of Ireland. The name Derry is an anglicisation of the Irish name Doire or Doire Cholmcille meaning "oak-wood of Colmcille"...
is believed to have fired several shots with a revolver at British troops, after they had shot dead 13 nationalist demonstrators—the only republican shots fired on the day. The anger caused by Bloody Sunday in the nationalist community was such that the Official IRA announced that it would now be launching an "offensive" against the British forces.
However, the OIRA declared a ceasefire
Ceasefire
A ceasefire is a temporary stoppage of a war in which each side agrees with the other to suspend aggressive actions. Ceasefires may be declared as part of a formal treaty, but they have also been called as part of an informal understanding between opposing forces...
later in the same year. The Official IRA ceasefire followed a number of armed actions which had been politically damaging. The organisation bombed
1972 Aldershot Bombing
The Aldershot bombing was a car bomb attack by the Official Irish Republican Army on 22 February 1972 in Aldershot, England. The bomb targeted the headquarters of the British Army's 16th Parachute Brigade and was claimed as a revenge attack for Bloody Sunday. Seven civilian staff were killed and...
the Aldershot
Aldershot
Aldershot is a town in the English county of Hampshire, located on heathland about southwest of London. The town is administered by Rushmoor Borough Council...
headquarters of the Parachute Regiment in revenge for Bloody Sunday, but killed only six civilians and a Roman Catholic army chaplain. After the killing of William Best, a British soldier, home on leave in Derry, the OIRA declared a ceasefire. In addition, the death of several militant OIRA figures such as Joe McCann, in confrontations with British soldiers, enabled the Goulding leadership to call off their armed campaign, which they had never supported wholeheartedly.
The Official IRA since 1972
Although formally on ceasefire (except for "defensive actions") since 1972 (see above), the Official IRA continued some attacks on British forces up to mid 1973, killing seven British soldiers in what it termed "retaliatory attacks". In addition, the OIRA's weapons were used intermittently in the ongoing feud with the Provisionals. This flared up into violence on several occasions, notably in October 1975, when the Provisionals sought out and shot Official IRA members in Belfast — 11 republicans on either side were killed in the feud, a nine year-old girl was also shot dead by the Provisional's when they tried to shoot her father.In 1974, radical elements within the organisation who objected to the ceasefire, led by Seamus Costello
Seamus Costello
Seamus Costello was a leader of Official Sinn Féin and the Official Irish Republican Army and latterly of the Irish Republican Socialist Party and the Irish National Liberation Army ....
, established the Irish National Liberation Army
Irish National Liberation Army
The Irish National Liberation Army or INLA is an Irish republican socialist paramilitary group that was formed on 8 December 1974. Its goal is to remove Northern Ireland from the United Kingdom and create a socialist united Ireland....
. Another feud ensued in the first half of 1975, during which three INLA and five OIRA members were killed. The dead included prominent members of both organisations including Costello and the OIRA O/C, Billy McMillen
Billy McMillen
Billy McMillen was an Irish republican activist and an officer of the Official Irish Republican Army...
. However, from the mid-1970s onwards the Official Republican Movement became increasingly focussed on achieving its aims through left-wing constitutional politics. This however did not stop sporadic paramilitary activity from the OIRA who on 8 September 1979 killed Hugh O'Halloran in a punishment beating in the Ballymurphy area of Belfast. O' Halloran was beaten to death with hurley sticks
Hurley (stick)
A hurley is a wooden stick used to hit a sliotar in the Irish sport of hurling. It measures between 70 and 100 cm long with a flattened, curved end which provides the striking surface...
. The two OIRA men who carried out the killing turned themselves in to the RUC; both were convicted and sentenced to imprisonment in the Maze. The army lost a number of members who gradually drifted away from the ceasefire up to shortly after the 1981 hunger strike, many either joining the Provisional IRA or the INLA or some simply dropping out.
From 1981 on, Sinn Féin the Workers Party, renamed the Workers' Party
Workers' Party of Ireland
The Workers' Party is a left-wing republican political party in Ireland. Originating in the Sinn Féin organisation founded in 1905 by Arthur Griffith, it took its current form in 1970 after a split within the party, adopting its current name in 1982....
the following year, had some success in the Republic of Ireland, but little in the North.
Throughout the 1980s, allegations that the Official IRA remained in existence and was engaged in criminal activity appeared in the Irish press. In June 1982 the feud with the INLA flared again after OIRA member James Flynn, the alleged assassin of Seamus Costello, was shot dead by the INLA in Dublin. In December 1985 five men, including a Mr. Anthony McDonagh, pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy to defraud the Inland Revenue in Northern Ireland—McDonagh was described in court as an Official IRA Commander. In February 1992 a British Spotlight programme alleged that the Official IRA was still active and involved in widespread racketeering and armed robberies.
These eventually proved a considerable political embarrassment to the Workers' Party, and in 1992 the leadership proposed amendments to the party constitution which would, inter alia, effectively allow it to purge members suspected of involvement in the Official IRA. This proposal failed to obtain the required two-thirds support at the party conference that year, and as a result the leadership, including six of the party's seven members of Dáil Éireann
Dáil Éireann
Dáil Éireann is the lower house, but principal chamber, of the Oireachtas , which also includes the President of Ireland and Seanad Éireann . It is directly elected at least once in every five years under the system of proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote...
, left to establish a new party, later named Democratic Left
Democratic Left (Ireland)
Democratic Left was a democratic socialist political party active in Ireland between 1992 and 1999. It came into being after a split in the Workers' Party and, after just seven years in existence, it merged into the Irish Labour Party.-Origins:...
.
In 1995, some Northern based former Official IRA members in the Newry area launched a "re-founded" Official Republican Movement, intended to pursue the socialist republican politics which the Officials espoused in the 1970s. They are not thought to advocate the use of violence however and have no connection with the Workers' Party.
Most recently, there have been allegations of criminality against former senior Official IRA figure Sean Garland
Seán Garland
Seán Garland is a former President of the Workers' Party in Ireland.-Early Life:Born at Belvedere Place, off Mountjoy Square in Dublin, Garland joined the Irish Republican Army in 1953. In 1954, he briefly joined the British Army as an IRA agent and collected intelligence on Gough Barracks in...
, who was accused in 2005 by the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
of helping to produce and circulate counterfeit US dollars
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
allegedly printed in North Korea
North Korea
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea , , is a country in East Asia, occupying the northern half of the Korean Peninsula. Its capital and largest city is Pyongyang. The Korean Demilitarized Zone serves as the buffer zone between North Korea and South Korea...
.
Decommissioning
In October 2009, after a long period of inactivity, the Official IRA began talks with a view to decommissioning its stockpile of weapons, and in February 2010 the Newry based Official Republican Movement announced that the process was complete. The process was confirmed to be completed by the Independent International Commission on DecommissioningIndependent International Commission on Decommissioning
The Independent International Commission on Decommissioning was established to oversee the decommissioning of paramilitary weapons in Northern Ireland, as part of the peace process.-Legislation and organisation:...
on 8 February 2010, coming in the last 24 hours of the commission's existence. The decommissioning was completed at the same time as that of the republican Irish National Liberation Army
Irish National Liberation Army
The Irish National Liberation Army or INLA is an Irish republican socialist paramilitary group that was formed on 8 December 1974. Its goal is to remove Northern Ireland from the United Kingdom and create a socialist united Ireland....
and the loyalist UDA South East Antrim Brigade
UDA South East Antrim Brigade
The UDA South East Antrim Brigade was one of the six paramilitaries of the Ulster Defence Association . It operated in County Antrim, mainly in Newtownabbey, Larne and Antrim. The Guardian has identified it as "one of the most dangerous factions"...
. The step was described by British Prime Minister
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the Head of Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom. The Prime Minister and Cabinet are collectively accountable for their policies and actions to the Sovereign, to Parliament, to their political party and...
Gordon Brown
Gordon Brown
James Gordon Brown is a British Labour Party politician who was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party from 2007 until 2010. He previously served as Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Labour Government from 1997 to 2007...
as a "central part of moving Northern Ireland from violence to peace".
People killed by the Official IRA
According to the Sutton database of murders at the University of UlsterUniversity of Ulster
The University of Ulster is a multi-campus, co-educational university located in Northern Ireland. It is the largest single university in Ireland, discounting the federal National University of Ireland...
's CAIN project, the OIRA was responsible for 52 killings during the Troubles
The Troubles
The Troubles was a period of ethno-political conflict in Northern Ireland which spilled over at various times into England, the Republic of Ireland, and mainland Europe. The duration of the Troubles is conventionally dated from the late 1960s and considered by many to have ended with the Belfast...
. Twenty-three of its victims were civilians, 17 were members of the security forces, 11 were members of republican paramilitaries (including three of its own members), and one was a member of a loyalist paramilitary.
See also
- Official Sinn Féin
- Provisional Irish Republican ArmyProvisional Irish Republican ArmyThe Provisional Irish Republican Army is an Irish republican paramilitary organisation whose aim was to remove Northern Ireland from the United Kingdom and bring about a socialist republic within a united Ireland by force of arms and political persuasion...
- Provisional Sinn Féin
- Workers' PartyWorkers' Party of IrelandThe Workers' Party is a left-wing republican political party in Ireland. Originating in the Sinn Féin organisation founded in 1905 by Arthur Griffith, it took its current form in 1970 after a split within the party, adopting its current name in 1982....
- Eoghan HarrisEoghan HarrisEoghan Harris is an Irish journalist, fiction writer, director, columnist and politician. He currently writes for the Sunday Independent. He was a member of Seanad Éireann from 2007–11, having been nominated by the Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern....
- Henry McDonaldHenry McDonaldHenry McDonald may refer to:* Henry McDonald * Henry McDonald * Henry McDonald * Henry McDonald *Henry Monroe McDonald , a Major League Baseball pitcher known as Hank McDonald...
Further reading
- "Official IRA declares ceasefire". BBC NewsBBC NewsBBC News is the department of the British Broadcasting Corporation responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs. The department is the world's largest broadcast news organisation and generates about 120 hours of radio and television output each day, as well as online...
, 30 May 1972.