Irish National Liberation Army. History of the Irish Republican Army. Involvement in communal conflict in Northern Ireland

Irish Republican Army (IRA, Northern Ireland). The organization has been fighting for 85 years against the “illegal British occupation” and unionists (or loyalists - Protestant Irish loyal to the British crown) of Northern Ireland and advocates its unification with the Irish Republic. The IRA began its activities on January 21, 1919 with the murder of two Irish royal constables, accused of agreeing to serve the British. On the same day, the Irish nationalist political party Sinn Fein adopted the “Declaration of Irish Independence” at a general meeting. One of the main milestones in the history of the IRA is considered to be July 21, 1972, when 21 explosions occurred in Belfast alone, killing 9 people and injuring several hundred more. In 1984, the IRA organized an assassination attempt on British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Terrorists blew up the Grand Hotel in Brighton, where she was staying The Iron Lady", but Thatcher was not harmed. Currently, the IRA number reaches a thousand fighters. Terrorists receive financial and political assistance from the Irish diaspora in the United States; weapons and explosives were supplied to Ireland by Libya and the PLO. According to world intelligence services, the IRA is part of the so-called "red belt ", a community of international separatist organizations, which also includes ETA (Basque Country), FARC (Colombia) and some others.
In 1998, Sinn Fein and the Unionists signed a peace treaty (the so-called Good Friday Agreement) on joint governance of Northern Ireland. In 2002, four members of Sinn Fein even became members of the British Parliament.

The Irish Republican Army, IRA (Irish: Óglaigh na hÉireann, English: Irish Republican Army) is an Irish national liberation organization whose goal is to achieve complete independence of Northern Ireland from the United Kingdom, including - and mainly - the reunification of Northern Ireland (part of Ulster) with the Republic of Ireland.

The IRA in its activities relies on the support of part of the Catholic population of Northern Ireland. He considers his main opponents to be those who support the preservation of the province as part of the United Kingdom.

Opposes both British security forces and Protestant paramilitary groups (see Ulster Loyalism).

Since 1949, it has moved the center of its activities to Northern Ireland. Since 1969, the IRA switched to urban guerrilla tactics and divided into a number of secret autonomous cells. Some of these groups subsequently switched to purely terrorist methods of struggle both in Northern Ireland and in the rest of Great Britain.

On August 14, 1969, London sent troops to the region to resolve the conflict. The surge in violence began after " Bloody Sunday"Bloody Sunday - January 30, 1972, when British soldiers shot at an unarmed civil rights protest in Derry, Northern Ireland, killing 18 people.

On May 30, 1972, the IRA announced the cessation of active hostilities. However, since the British government refused to negotiate with the separatists, IRA militants resumed terrorist attacks in Ulster and England.

The main signature of the IRA was a telephone warning 90 minutes before the detonation of a car filled with explosives, which reduced the possibility of casualties, but served as a demonstration of force. One of the main suppliers of weapons to the IRA was Libya. The main targets of the IRA were British army soldiers, police officers and judges.

Stocks IRA

1972, July 21 - Bloody Friday - a series of bombings in Belfast, carried out by the Belfast Brigade of the "Provisional" Irish Republican Army and resulting in the death of 9 people (2 British Army personnel, 1 member of the Ulster Defense Association and 6 civilians). The number of wounded was 130 people.
1974, February 4 - a bomb exploded on a bus transporting British Army and Air Force personnel from Manchester to permanent deployment sites near Catterick and Darlington.
1982, July 20 - Members of the Provisional IRA detonated two bombs during a parade of British troops in Hyde Park and Regent's Park. The explosions killed 22 soldiers and injured more than 50 soldiers and civilians.
1983, December 17 - explosion at a London supermarket.
1984 - assassination attempt on British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in Brighton.
1993 - car explosion near Shopping center Warington.
1994, March 11 - shelling of Heathrow Airport (London) from mortars.
2000, September 20 - a shot from an RPG-22 grenade launcher on the 8th floor of the MI6 building.

Commanded by Michael Collins. However, a significant part of the partisans did not recognize the treaty and started a civil war. Organizations calling themselves the “Irish Republican Army” still operate.

Background

Irish republicanism has a long history, starting with the Society of United Irishmen, which staged uprisings in 1798 and 1803, continuing with the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB), the Defenders, and the Ribbonists. English), "Irish Land League" (English) and other secret organizations. Reduction IRA first used by the American organization "Fenian Brotherhood" (English), which organized raids on Canada.

Parliament and the IRA

The first step in reorganization was taken at a meeting of the Irish Volunteers on October 27, 1917, which was attended by about 250 members (many at that time remained in the camps after the Easter Rising). At the congress, elections for new leadership were held, the following were elected: Eamon de Valera (President), Michael Collins (Head of Organization), Darmund Lynch (English) (Head of Communications), Michael Staines (English) (Head of Supply), Rory O'Connor (English) (Chief Engineer), Sean McGarry (English) ( general secretary), Kahal Bru (chief of staff). Volunteer chiefs for the counties and Dublin were also chosen. Many of those elected served in the Irish Parliament.

On January 21, 1919, the first meeting of the Irish Parliament (in Irish) opened at Dublin City Hall, and Bru was elected Prime Minister. The IRA was recognized as a national army and had to answer to parliament, but in practice local government control of the Volunteers was highly problematic. Parliamentarians' fears were confirmed when, on the same day, two Royal Irish Constabulary (RIP) constables were killed in South Tipperary, sanctioned by Sean Treacy and Dan Breen. Attacks by "flying squads" on police establishments continued in various counties throughout the war.

Literature

When Britain's Queen Elizabeth II made a "historic" visit to Northern Ireland and even shook hands with former militant Martin McGuinness, who allegedly killed her relative, it seemed that the Irish Republican Army was forever a thing of the past. However, on the eve of the Olympics, terrorists gave the queen an unpleasant surprise.

Three of Northern Ireland's four terrorist organizations have announced they are merging to revive the Irish Republican Army (IRA). It will consist of several hundred armed Real IRA fighters ( Real IRA), the Republican Action Against Drugs movement ( Republican Action Against Drugs,RAAD) , operating in the city of Deri, and a coalition of independent armed groups (the so-called "Republican Nonconformists"), small groups in Belfast and the countryside. Only the "Successive IRA" will remain independent ( Continuity IRA).

This information, coupled with a statement of intention to intensify terrorist attacks, was transferred to a British newspaper journalist The Guardian at a secret meeting held on the Irish border. The participants of the new association claim that they “act together” and “under a single leadership.” " IN last years the formation of a free and independent Ireland was delayed and failed due to the abandonment of the leadership of the nationalist movement“, the statement says. Probably, we are talking about the former leader of the “old” IRA and the already mentioned Martin McGuinness, who chose a peaceful political process, formed the Sinn Fein party and took the post of Deputy Prime Minister of Northern Ireland.

Read also: The Queen pacifies Ulster

Irish separatists emphasize the need for armed struggle against the British crown and the British military presence in Northern Ireland. The New Old IRA plans to intensify attacks on security forces and other symbols of the British presence, such as the offices of the Ulster Bank. Explosions in Derry in 2013, during the celebration of British Culture Days, cannot be ruled out, writes The Guardian. The organization will be subject to the constitution of the Irish Republican Army of 1916, say the militants, whom the British newspaper shamefully calls dissidents. Although when it comes to “dissidents” in other countries, the Anglo-Saxons are not shy, calling them rebels and opposition. " The need for armed struggle will only disappear when the British military presence in our country ends, their armed militia is disbanded, and London, under international supervision, ceases political interference in the affairs of our country", say the separatists.

Among the "republicans" who have joined the new organization are those responsible for the murder of Catholic constable Ronan Kerr in April 2011. In general, the listed groups have mined private cars belonging to police officers dozens of times since 2007. The Real IRA has existed since 1990 and claimed responsibility for a bombing in Omagh, County Tyrone, which killed 29 people. The British press expresses particular concern about the group joining the IRA RAAD, who is taking “revenge” on alleged drug dealers in Derry. The danger is explained by noble motives, under which other separatist motives are hidden. The formation of the new structure was the first example of the unification of opponents of British rule since the Good Friday Agreement, signed on April 10, 1998 by the British and Irish authorities, ratified by Parliament and approved in a referendum.

There are enough organizations in the world whose activities are considered by their supporters to be revolutionary liberation, and whose opponents are considered terrorist. But the most famous of these is the Irish Republican Army (IRA), a structure that has a rich history and traditions and has largely shaped the standards by which similar organizations are created and operate throughout the planet. True, at present, the fighters for the separation of Northern Ireland from the United Kingdom themselves cannot agree among themselves which IRA is the real one and whether it exists at all...

The war is not over for everyone

As you know, at the beginning of the 20th century, an armed struggle for independence from Great Britain unfolded in Ireland. On the Irish side, this struggle against the English army was waged by various armed groups of nationalists and revolutionaries. As a result of the merger of several similar groups in 1919, the Irish Republican Army emerged, which played an important role in the subsequent military operations of 1919-1921. In 1922, an Anglo-Irish agreement was reached, according to which Ireland became a sovereign state, but its northern part, an area predominantly inhabited by Protestants, was part of the United Kingdom. Some IRA members agreed to these conditions, but many were against it, which led to civil war 1922-1923. As a result, the supporters of the agreement won, but their opponents did not abandon the task of achieving the reunification of Ireland and Northern Ireland within the framework of an independent state; the IRA went underground.

After the end of the Second World War, the IRA decided to move on to active military operations directly on the territory of Northern Ireland. Since 1949, over the course of half a century, the IRA has organized numerous terrorist attacks, directed primarily against British soldiers, police officers and officials, as well as against active supporters of the United Kingdom in Northern Ireland. Most often, terrorist attacks were carried out using car explosions, and warning calls about the location of the explosion became the signature style of the IRA - thereby the organization demonstrated that it was waging war “by the rules.” At the same time, the organization gradually switched to actions in England: the most famous are the bombing in London in 1982, which killed more than twenty soldiers, and the assassination attempt in 1984 on Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. However, in the 1990s - 2000s, as a result of long and complex political negotiations, the IRA officially renounced the use of force and announced a transition to political methods of fighting for the reunification of Ireland and Northern Ireland.

It's easy to get confused

However, when it comes to IRAs, it is easy to get confused and confuse different organizations. The fact is that throughout its history the IRA has repeatedly split into separate and even warring organizations. Currently, there are four main organizations of Irish nationalists known, which call themselves the Irish Republican Army. The first split occurred in 1969 and after it the “Official” and “Provisional” IRA were formed. The division occurred over the issue of responding to increased pressure from the British authorities and their supporters, the Irish loyalists, as well as over the admissibility of participation in the political process, in the elections in Northern Ireland.

The “official” IRA, ideologically inclined towards Marxism, allowed the possibility of participation in the political process, which, however, did not negate the possibility of using violence as “retaliatory measures”. Thus, it is estimated that the “Official” IRA is responsible for the deaths of 52 people as a result of terrorist attacks. However, in this regard, it cannot be compared with the “Provisional” IRA, which initially did not recognize any forms of interaction with the “occupiers” and carried out active combat activities. This IRA was responsible for the deaths of about 1,800 people over thirty years. However, gradually these two organizations began to show an inclination towards dialogue with Great Britain and attempts to translate the problem into a political channel. Therefore, two more, more radical, organizations broke away from the “Provisional” IRA: the “Continuous” IRA (1986) and the “Genuine” IRA (1997). At the same time, the “Genuine” IRA is the most active - it was responsible for the majority of terrorist attacks on behalf of the IRA in the 2000s, the last high-profile action was the murder of a police officer in 2011. She has also adopted new methods of struggle - in addition to traditional car bombings, kidnappings and murders of “enemies” are widely practiced.

IRA revived?

Moreover: in the summer of 2012 it became known that it was the “Genuine” IRA that took the initiative to recreate a single powerful Irish Republican Army, which would replace the members of the “Official” and “Provisional” IRA who had abandoned the armed struggle and who had gone into the political sphere. The "Genuine" IRA intends to join forces with two other Irish armed groups: the Coalition of Republican Armed Groups and Republican Action Against Drugs. A proposal for unification was also sent to the leadership of the “Successive” IRA, but it chose to remain independent.

The ideological platform of the resurgent IRA, according to statements by its representatives, will be adherence to the IRA charter of 1916 and a consistent armed struggle against the British authorities until Northern Ireland becomes independent. Members of the organization intend to organize terrorist attacks in Northern Ireland and Great Britain until the English administration and army leave Irish territory, and the British government gives international obligations not to interfere in the internal affairs of the “Green Island”. At the same time, experts especially note the danger of uniting the Republican Action against Drugs with the IRA: this means that some of the terrorist attacks will be justified by actions against the network of drug dealers that has strengthened in Northern Irish cities, which could provide the new IRA with the support of the local population.

Alexander Babitsky

The view that is now popular in some circles that terrorism is a purely Eastern phenomenon and necessarily associated with Islam, or rather, with its incorrect interpretation, is refuted by European experience. A radical organization has been operating in the United Kingdom for many decades, which aims to separate one of its parts from Great Britain. The members of this structure were never shy about their means, terrifying millions of residents of Foggy Albion. The name of this terrorist organization, which is Lately has slowed down, but is still on everyone’s lips - the Irish Republican Army (IRA).

From the very beginning, the IRA set itself an ambitious goal: to achieve complete independence of Northern Ireland (Ulster) from the United Kingdom, and most importantly, the reunification of Northern Ireland with the Republic of Ireland. The activities of the IRA were initially underground and associated with violence, notes Alexander Tevdoy-Burmuli, associate professor of the Department of European Integration at MGIMO:

"This is one of the elements of the Northern Irish political radical camp, which is fighting for the separation of Northern Ireland from Great Britain. There are legal elements there, and there are illegal ones, such as the IRA. It was created at the beginning of the 20th century in the context of the armed uprising that began in 1916 in Ireland against Great Britain. Then the so-called "Easter Rising" begins in Dublin, and the IRA arises in 1919 as an armed force of the Irish who fight against British rule. Then the Anglo-Irish agreement was signed, according to which the Republic of Ireland was created, but part of it remained "as part of Great Britain. Accordingly, since the late 20s, the IRA continues to fight against British rule, but not in Ireland as such, but in Northern Ireland."

In the late 1960s, the IRA split into a number of well-covered autonomous cells. And some groups switched to purely terrorist methods of struggle in Ulster and the rest of Great Britain. Director of the Institute of Globalization and Social Movements Boris Kagarlitsky said that the second life of the IRA was associated with the economic crisis in the late 70s of the last century:

“Against the backdrop of the worsening economic situation in Northern Ireland, relations between Catholics and Protestants worsened. As a result, the IRA began to actively recruit supporters among the impoverished, marginal part of the Catholic population. Catholics were losing their jobs faster, and in this sense there was a ready social base for recruiting militants. In "As a result, during the 70s we saw almost a war in Northern Ireland: murders, bombings, shootings, clashes between militants and police. British regular troops were sent there."

But then the situation changed. The intensity of passions has subsided, including due to the concerted actions of the British authorities. London did its best to suppress nationalist sentiments in Northern Ireland. He is doing this now, attracting politicians who previously stood on a radical platform to various government bodies, including central ones. Financial flows are flowing from the British capital to ensure job creation and social stability in the region. In the early 2000s, the leaders of the hardline wing of the IRA received long prison sentences. However, this organization still has several hundred members. Their last attack was launched in 2010. The precedent of Scotland, which managed to achieve a referendum on its being part of the United Kingdom, inspired many supporters of the separate existence of Ulster. And let the Scots say “no” to the supporters of sovereignty. The main thing is that they had the opportunity to speak out. So the slogan “Give Ireland back to the Irish,” voiced in one of Paul McCartney’s songs, has still not lost its relevance.