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Paramilitaries in Northern Ireland

Paramilitaries in Northern Ireland. The Armalite and the Ballot Box. A Brief History – Part I. Highlights from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ireland#History Various peoples have lived in Ireland for around 9,000 years

Renfred
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Paramilitaries in Northern Ireland

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  1. Paramilitaries in Northern Ireland The Armalite and the Ballot Box

  2. A Brief History – Part I • Highlights from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ireland#History • Various peoples have lived in Ireland for around 9,000 years • The beginning of contemporary problems traces back to the Plantations of the 16th and 17th centuries

  3. A Brief History – Part II • During the Plantations, Irish lands were seized and given to British planters (colonists) • The second Plantation in Ireland was the Plantation of Ulster, focused around 1607-1609 • About half of the Ulster Planters were Scottish and the other half English

  4. A Brief History – Part III • Irish Rebellion of 1641 – end result was Irish Catholics being barred from voting or attending Parliament, institutionalized Protestant rule (Protestant Ascendancy) • Images of Protestants killed and massacred in 1641 still adorn Orange Order banners and standards today

  5. A Brief History – Part IV • 1800 – Irish Parliament passes Act of Union which merges Ireland with U.K.; beginning of direct government • 1840s – Famine; around 1 million die, another million emigrate, many to America • Agitation for Home Rule throughout the end of the 19th and early 20th centuries

  6. A Brief History – Part V • Theobald Wolfe Tone – 1791 – founded United Irishmen • Unsuccessful French-backed invasion in 1798 • Padraigh (Patrick) Pearse, James Connolly, Easter Rising of 1916 • Sinn Fein landslide in elections of 1918 • 1919 - First Dáil

  7. A Brief History – Part VI • 1918 elections were last ones that took place in whole of Ireland until European Parliament elections 60+ years later • 1921 – Anglo-Irish Treaty end Anglo-Irish War, divides Ireland into Republic and Ulster; Collins assassinated in subsequent Irish Civil War • Anglo-Irish War – first IRA

  8. IRA Official IRA (OIRA) Provos (PIRA) INLA RIRA Continuity IRA (CAC) UDA/UFF UVF LVF / Red Hand Commando Red Hand Defenders The Paras

  9. IRA – Part I • Saw themselves as heirs to the original IRA, sworn to the spirit of the Easter Rising and the 1919 Dáil • Major ideological split in 1969 – Official IRA cease fire (Marxists, “stickies”) vs. Provos (“rosary brigade”, “pinheads”) • OIRA ceasefire in 1973, continued to fight with Provos

  10. IRA – Part II • Pre-1980s organization: Local volunteers form companies, companies are structured into wider geographic battalions, battlions are structured into regional brigades (ex. Derry Brigade, West Belfast Brigade) • Drawback: Once police and military powers increased, easy to “roll” the organization up via legitimate informers, “supergrasses”

  11. IRA – Part III • Cell structure replaced army hierarchy around early 1980s • Double blind communication structure of dead drops, phone calls; orders come directly from Army Council • No one cell knows other cells; much more difficult to compromise

  12. IRA – Part IV • Late 1970s, early 1980s: Criminalization of paras; H-Block hunger strikes, 7 IRA and 3 INLA men starve to death • Mobilized wider Republican political sentiment; beginning of wider Sinn Fein political success

  13. Methods of Mayhem • Wide variety of small arms, mostly smuggled from U.S., Libya • Kneecappings, shootings on individual level • Car bombs in urban areas as an area effect weapon • Culvert bombs in rural areas stifled British troop movement on ground

  14. INLA • 1974 break off of OIRA; aligned with Irish Republican Socialist Party • Assassinated Conservative MP Airey Neave by car bomb in 1979 • Became involved in drug trade to finance operations • Continually split and weakened by infighting and spin offs

  15. IPLO • Spin off of dissatisfied INLA members in 1986 • Became heavily involved in drug trade as means of finance early in existence • Only stated goal was to fight INLA • Due to drug trade, PIRA wiped out IPLO in 1992

  16. RIRA • Biggest contemporary Republican para threat • Splinters from Provos who disavowed 1998 Belfast Accords and 2005 announcement of end of campaign • 1998 Omagh bomb – 29 dead • Affiliated with 32 County Sovereignty Committee

  17. Continuity Army Council • Separate splinter from PIRA in 1986 over change in “abstentionism” policy for Sinn Fein • Small, limited capacity

  18. UDA/UFF • Founded in 1971 as umbrella Loyalist para organization • Aligned with Ulster Democratic Party • Supposedly carried out many killings with aid of or through manipulation from British army, intelligence • Heavily involved in racketeering, drug trade; many feuds with UVF

  19. UVF • Traces roots to 1912 (opposed to Home Rule); contemporarily organized in 1960s to fight IRA • Minority of members served in UDR while in UVF • Shankhill Butchers (~30), Miami Showband massacre • Aligned with PUP

  20. LVF / Red Hand Commando • Splintered from UVF in 1996 over 1994 cease-fire • Mostly fought with UVF and UDA over criminal rackets, territory • Only para group to kill a journalist, Martin O’Hagan, who exposed their role in the regional heroin trade • Ceased operation in October 2005 (?)

  21. Red Hand Defenders • Formed in 1998 from militant UDA and LVF members • Mostly limited to pipe bombs and individual shootings • “Soft” Catholic/nationalist targets and UDA, LVF members

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