The Provisional Irish Republican Army reference article from the English Wikipedia on 24-Apr-2004 (provided by Fixed Reference: snapshots of Wikipedia from wikipedia.org)

Provisional Irish Republican Army

The Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA) is a paramilitary group demanding the political unification of Ireland. It has been officially on ceasefire since 1997.

The PIRA is also known as the Provisional IRA, the 'Provos' and the Irish Republican Army. It is most commonly referred to simply as the IRA, although several groups claim this title (see: Irish Republican Army).

Table of contents

1 Overview 2 Origins 3 Strength and Support 4 The Belfast Agreement 5 Activities 5.1 Notable events 6 Inflitration 7 See Also 7.2 Other paramilitary groups in Ireland 7.3 Related topics 8 Footnotes

Overview

The PIRA was formed in 1969, with the stated aim of severing the political Union between Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and achieving the unification of the island of Ireland by force. It is organised into small, tightknit cells under the leadership of the IRA Army Council. Because the PIRA's 'armed struggle' has often included attacks on police officers and unarmed civilians, and the assassination of diplomats and politicians, it is described by many as a terrorist group ¹.

Origins

The Provisional IRA was initially a splinter group of the 'Official' IRA, which claimed descent from the Old IRA: the guerrilla army of the 1919-1922 Irish Republic. The Official IRA moved to a Marxist analysis of the 'Irish Problem' in the mid 1960s while the PIRA held to a more traditional republican analysis and became larger and more successful, eventually overshadowing the original group. The commonly used name of the PIRA arose when those who were unhappy with the IRA's Army Council formed a "Provisional Army Council" of their own, echoing in turn the "Provisional Government" proclaimed during the Easter Rising of 1916.

The split in the armed wing of the republican movement was mirrored in the separation of the republican political wing. Supporters of the PIRA split from 'Official' Sinn Féin to form Provisional Sinn Féin. Provisional Sinn Féin was later known simply as Sinn Féin (while 'Official' Sinn Féin eventually became the Workers' Party).

Strength and Support

The PIRA has several hundred members as well as several thousand civilian sympathisers on the island of Ireland, although its strength has been affected in recent times, to some extent, by operatives leaving the organisation to join hardline splinter groups such as the Continuity IRA and the Real IRA. If the PIRA has enjoyed mass support this has not, historically, been reflected in support for its associated political party, Sinn Féin, which, until recently, did not receive the support of more than a minority of nationalists in Northern Ireland, or of voters in general in the Republic of Ireland.

In the past the PIRA has received funds and arms from sympathisers in the United States, notably from the Noraid (Irish Northern Aid) organisation. The IRA has also, on occaion, received assistance from foreign governments and paramilitary groups, including considerable training and arms from Libya and assistance from the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO). This support has been weakened by the so called "War against Terrorism", the events of the 11th September 2001 and the discovery of three PIRA suspects in Colombia, allegedly training Colombian FARC paramilitaries.

The Belfast Agreement

The PIRA cease-fire in 1997 formed part of a process that led to the 1998 Good Friday (Belfast) Agreement. The Agreement has amongst its aims that all extra-legal paramilitary groups in Northern Ireland cease their activities and disarm.

Calls from Sinn Féin have lead the PIRA to commence disarming in a process that has been overviewed by General John de Chastelain's decommissioning body in October, 2001. However, following the collapse of the Stormont power-sharing government in 2002, which was partially triggered by allegations that republican spies were operating within Parliament Buildings and the Civil Service, the PIRA abandoned their association with General de Chastelain. It is expected that if and when power-sharing resumes, the PIRA disarmament process will begin again, though it is already considered by some to be behind schedule. Increasing numbers of people, from the Ulster Unionists under David Trimble and the SDLP under Mark Durkan to the Irish Government under Bertie Ahern and the mainstream Irish media, have begun demanding not merely decommissioning but the wholesale disbandment of the PIRA.

Activities

The Provisional IRA's activities have included bombings, assassinations, kidnappings, so-called 'punishment beatings', extortion and robberies. Previous targets have included the British military, the Royal Ulster Constabulary, British Government officials, Unionist politicians and civilians in both Northern Ireland and Great Britain. Members of the Garda Síochána (the Republic of Ireland police force) have also been killed (most notoriously Detective Garda Gerry McCabe, shot and killed after the commencement of the PIRA ceasefire). PIRA bombing campaigns have been conducted against rail and London Underground (subway) stations and shopping areas on the island of Great Britain, and a British military facility on Continental Europe.

It has recently been claimed that elements of the PIRA have been involved in a spate of bank robberies throughout the island of Ireland, allegedly to build up funds to 'pension off' PIRA members and so facilitate disbandment.

The PIRA has been officially on ceasefire since July 1997 (although hardline splinter groups such as the Continuity IRA and so-called Real IRA continue their campaigns). It previously observed a cease-fire from 1 September 1994 to February 1996.

Notable events

• 1971: Catholic mother of ten Jean McConville is executed by the Provisional IRA for cushioning the head of a dying British soldier. The group would deny any involvement in the killing until the 1990s, when it would acknowledge its action.
• 21 July 1972: On 'Bloody Friday' 22 bombs kill 9 and seriously injure 130. 30 years later the PIRA would officially apologise for this set of attacks.
• 1974: The Guildford pub bombing kills 19 and injures 182. Four people, dubbed the 'Guildford Four', would be convicted for this and imprisoned with life sentences. 15 years later Lord Lane of the Court of Appeal would overturn their convictions noting "the investigating officers must have lied".
• 1974: In the Birmingham Pub Bombings bombs in two pubs kill 19. The Birmingham Six' would be tried for this and convicted. Many years later, after new evidence of police fabrication and suppression of evidence, their convictions would be quashed. Appeals by the Birmingham Six that the real IRA bombers had admitted responsibility for the bombings were ignored.
• 1975: The Balcombe Street Siege.
• 1976: A PIRA bomb kills the newly appointed British ambassador to the Republic of Ireland, resulting in the declaration of a State of Emergency in the Republic. The PIRA also threatens to kidnap or kill Irish cabinet ministers and the President of Ireland.
• 1979: A PIRA bomb kills Earl Mountbatten of Burma, members of his family and a local child off the Irish coast. During an Irish visit Pope John Paul II calls for the PIRA campaign of violence to come to an end.
• 1981: IRA prisoner Bobby Sands, imprisoned in connection with his involvement in an attack involving a bomb and subsequent gun battle, is elected Member of Parliament for the Northern Ireland constituency of Fermanagh and South Tyrone in a by-election. The moderate nationalist Social Democratic and Labour Party decides not to run a candidate, and so split the nationalist vote, leaving Sands as the main nationalist candidate. Sands had been on a hunger strike for 'Prisoner of War' status for 41 days prior to being elected. He died 23 days later.
• 1981: The PIRA kill Ulster Unionist Party Belfast MP Rev Robert Bradford along with the caretaker of a community centre. Irish Taoiseach Dr. Garret FitzGerald and former taoiseach Charles Haughey condemn the killings in Dáil Éireann. SDLP party leader John Hume accuses the Provisionals of waging a campaign of "sectarian genocide".
• 1982: In Hyde Park, two bombs kill eight members of the Household Cavalry and Royal Green jackets; units performing ceremonial duties in one of the few attacks to occur on the island of Great Britain that targeted soldiers. Seven of their horses are also killed.
• 1983: A Harrods department store bomb planted by the PIRA during Christmas shopping season kills six (three police) and wounds 90.
• 1984: In the Brighton hotel bombing a bomb in the Grand Hotel kills five in a failed attempt to assassinate members of the British cabinet, including Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.
• 1987: In the Enniskillen 'Massacre' the PIRA bombing of a Remembrance Day parade kills eleven civilians and injures sixty-three. Among the dead is nurse Marie Wilson, whose father, Gordon Wilson, would go on to become a leading campaigner for an end to violence in Northern Ireland. The PIRA would later claim that their target was a colour guard of British soldiers. On Remembrance Day 1997 the leader of Sinn Féin, Gerry Adams, formally apologised for the bombing.
• 1989: Ten Royal Marine bandsmen are killed and 22 injured in the bombing of their base in Deal in Kent.
• 1990: Car bombings in Northern Ireland kill seven and wound 37.
• 1991: Two PIRA members are killed in St. Albans when their own bomb detonates prematurely.
• 1992: Eight Protestant builders are killed by a PIRA bomb on their way to work at an army base near Omagh.
• 1993: A PIRA bomb in Warrington kills two children.
• 1993: The PIRA detonates a huge truck bomb in the City of London at Bishopsgate, which kills two and causes around £350m of damage, including the near destruction of St. Ethelburga's Bishopsgate.
• 1993: A bomb at a fish and chip shop underneath a UDA office on the Protestant Shankill Road in Belfast detonates prematurely, killing ten, including the bomber and two children.
• 1 September 1994: the PIRA declares the first of two cease-fires in the 1990s.
• 1996: The PIRA ends its 1994 cease-fire, killing two in a bomb at the Canary Wharf towers in London.
• 15 June 1996: The PIRA detonates a 5,000 lb (2,300 kg) bomb in Manchester, injuring 206 people and damaging seventy thousand square metres of retail and office space.
• 1997: The PIRA declares a second cease-fire.

Inflitration

There have been persistent rumours that the Provisional IRA had been infiltrated by British Intelligence agents, and that in past senior PIRA members have been informers.

In May 2003 a number of newspapers named Freddie Scappaticci as the alleged identity of the British Force Research Unit's most senior informer within the Provisional IRA, code-named Stakeknife, who is thought to have been head of the Provisional IRA's internal security force, charged with rooting out informers like himself. Scappaticci denies that this is the case and is taking legal action to challenge this claim.

See Also

Other paramilitary groups in Ireland

• Irish National Liberation Army (INLA)
• Real IRA (RIRA)
• Continuity IRA (CIRA)
• Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF)
• Ulster Defence Association (UDA)
• Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF)
• Red Hand Commandos

Related topics

• Irish Republican Army
• Sinn Fein
• History of Northern Ireland
• Terrorism

Footnotes

¹ The PIRA is characterised as a terrorist group by the UK and Republic of Ireland governments, as well by most of the British and Irish press.

This is the "Provisional Irish Republican Army" reference article from the English Wikipedia. All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License. See also our Disclaimer.