Official Irish Republican Army

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The so-called Official Irish Republican Army ( German  Official Irish Republican Army ), in its own name just Irish Republican Army , shortly IRA , or Óglaigh na hÉireann ( Irish for volunteers Ireland was) a Marxist , Irish republican underground organization in the Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland . Their main goals were an independent, communist and reunited Ireland. For these purposes she was ready to use violence. She was responsible for the deaths of around 53 people in Northern Ireland , the Republic of Ireland and Great Britain . On the other hand, about 30 of their own members were killed. She was politically supported by her affiliated party Sinn Féin - The Workers' Party and befriended communist regimes from the then Eastern Bloc .

The Official IRA saw itself as the direct and only legitimate continuation of the Irish Republican Army (the Army of the Irish Republic , 1916 / 1919-1921), which fought for the independence of Ireland at the Easter Rising and the Irish War of Independence. It emerged at the turn of the year 1969/70 at the beginning of the Northern Ireland conflict after a political-ideological split from the older Irish Republican Army , which emerged in 1922 after the War of Independence and fought in the Irish Civil War (1922-1923).

As early as 1972, the Official IRA announced a unilateral ceasefire and then rarely appeared, without, however, officially dissolving or disarming itself. Former members who disagreed with the ceasefire formed the rival Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) in 1974 , resulting in several bloody feuds among themselves.

Causes of the split and backgrounds

The split in the IRA in 1969 is significant because it also gave rise to the so-called Provisional Irish Republican Army , by far the most important paramilitary organization on the Irish-Republican spectrum during the Northern Ireland conflict.

The original IRA tried to reorient itself after the unsuccessful Border Campaign of the 1950s. In the process, left-wing forces within the organization gained influence, which gave the IRA a Marxist character and wanted to lead it away from the armed struggle. Rather, they saw the future in the political dispute. The dramatically escalating unrest of the 1960s took the IRA by surprise; as an armed movement it barely existed. She was faced with the decision to join the civil rights movement and to campaign politically for the equality of Catholics in Northern Ireland or to take up the armed struggle against British supremacy. Many pushed for violent guerrilla- style action ; Members with a traditionally Catholic nationalist background in particular were deeply suspicious of the Marxist ideology advocating a political solution. What ultimately led to the break was the question of whether Sinn Féin, as a political organization, should abstain from the party systems in Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic ( abstentionism ), which were regarded as illegitimate by Republicans loyal to the party. The more nationalistic and violent wing founded the Provisional IRA (alluding to the declaration of the provisional government of the Easter Rising in 1916), while the more politically oriented left wing established the Official IRA. The Marxists within the left-wing argued that the main purpose of provoking tension between Protestants and Catholics was to pit workers of both denominations against one another. Violence would therefore only be counterproductive to solving the Northern Ireland conflict. The Provisionals would come to the same conclusion a generation later, albeit for entirely different reasons.

Impact and Feuds

With this split, the OIRA lost almost all of its operational potential, because local units of the IRA mostly joined the Provisionals. Both groups fought for influence with the Catholic residents of Northern Ireland and fought bloody arguments. The OIRA hardly appeared as a paramilitary group. It bombed the Parachute Brigade headquarters in Aldershot Garrison on February 22, 1972 in response to Bloody Sunday .

However, the attack did not hit a soldier, but instead killed six civilians and a Catholic military chaplain. Then the OIRA shot and killed a soldier from the Royal Irish Rangers who was not involved in the Northern Ireland conflict. He was actually stationed in Germany and was on home leave. After scathing criticism of these assassinations, the officials declared an armistice on May 29, 1972.

After only a few years of existence, the division broke out again when radical forces broke away from the OIRA in 1974 in order to no longer be bound by the armistice and founded the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA). The officials were determined to nip the newly formed faction in the bud and shot some of its members.

As with any IRA-style grouping, a political wing was formed that was originally called the Official Sinn Féin. After being renamed many times, the communist Workers' Party emerged , and it still exists today.

present

Workers Party poster, Belfast, July 2010

In the 90s it became quiet about the OIRA. Although no declaration was made in this regard, it was considered to have been resolved. More recently, however, the group has once again come into the public eye in the person of Seán Garland . He is the chairman of the Workers' Party and is also said to be a senior member of the now inactive OIRA. He is accused of having made use of contacts with governments and secret services from the communist era to obtain so-called super dollars and put them into circulation.

In February 2010, the organization announced that it had made all remaining weapons unusable. Though she had not operated for nearly four decades by then, firearms were still in her arsenal. However, these were only used sporadically in internal feuds or in punitive actions against alleged criminals. With the decommissioning at this point in time, the OIRA met the deadline that the Good Friday Agreement offered for the impunity of handing over weapons.

literature

  • Brian Hanley, Scott Millar: The lost revolution. The story of the official IRA and the workers' party. Penguin Ireland, Dublin 2009, ISBN 1-8448-8120-2 .

Web links

swell

  1. ^ Sutton data base of deaths: Organization Responsible for the death. Ulster University , accessed October 2, 2019 .
  2. ^ Sutton data base of deaths: Status of the person killed. Ulster University , accessed October 2, 2019 .
  3. ^ IRA bomb kills six at Aldershot barracks. BBC, accessed September 19, 2007 .
  4. ^ Official IRA gets rid of weapons. BBC, accessed February 8, 2010 .