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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 Irish Republican Army in the 26 counties that were to become the Irish Free State split between supporters and opponents of the Treaty. The 'Anti-Treatyites', sometimes referred to as the Irregulars, continued to use the name '''Irish Republican Army''' ('''IRA''') or in Irish '''Óglaigh na hÉireann''', as did the organisation in Northern Ireland which generally supported the pro-Treaty side. '' Óglaigh Na HÉireann '' was also adopted as the name of the pro-Treaty National Army and remains the official legal title of the Irish Defence Forces . Most Irish people now consider the latter the only body entitled to use that name. This article deals with the anti-Treaty IRA that fought the Irish Civil War and was defeated by the Irish Free State forces and with its successors up to 1969, when the IRA split again. THE IRA SPLIT ''See also: IRA And The Anglo-Irish Treaty '' The signature of the Anglo-Irish Treaty by the Irish delegation in London caused an angry reaction among the more radical elements in Sinn Féin and in the IRA . Dáil Éireann ratified the Treaty by 64 votes to 57 after a lengthy and acrimonious debate, following which President Éamon De Valera resigned. Sinn Féin split between pro-Treaty and anti-Treaty factions, and the Army followed suit. The majority of headquarters staff, many of whom were close to Michael Collins , supported the Treaty, but opinion among Volunteers was divided. By and large, IRA units in Munster, part of Clare and most of Connacht were opposed to the Treaty, while those in favour predominated in the Midlands, Leinster and what was to become Northern Ireland . The pro-treaty Volunteers formed the nucleus of the new National Army . In March 1922 anti-Treaty officers called an army convention, attended by their supporters, which reaffirmed their opposition to the Treaty. They repudiated the authority of the Dail, claiming that its members had broken their oath to defend the Irish Republic and declared their own Army Executive to be the real government of the country until the Republic was formally established. The reasons why Volunteers chose pro and anti-treaty positions are complex. One factor was an evaluation of the military situation. Whereas Collins, Richard Mulcahy and Eoin O'Duffy felt that the IRA could not continue to fight the British successfully, anti-treaty officers such as Ernie O'Malley and Tom Barry felt that the IRA's position was stronger than it had ever been. Another factor was the role of powerful personalities, where the leader of an IRA unit — for example Sean McEoin who sided with the treaty in County Longford — the remainder of his command followed suit. The same was also true for anti-treaty leaders such as Liam Lynch in Cork. After the civil war broke out, the Free State government issued directives to newspapers that its Army was to be called "The National Army", its opponents were to be called "Irregulars" and were not to be associated with the IRA of 1919-1921. This attitude hardened as the civil war went on and especially after the killing of Michael Colins in an ambush in August 1922. Collins wrote to W.T. Cosgrave on the 25th of July 1922 that the anti-treaty side were "misguided, but practically all of them are sincere". However, the subsequent government attitude under Cosgrave was that the anti-Treaty side were rebels against the lawful government and were not entitled to recognition as legitimate combatants. Some of the officers of the new Irish Army led by Liam Toibin formed an association called the "Old IRA" to distinguish themselves from the anti-treaty fighters. Some pro-Treaty IRA officers like Eoin O'Duffy alleged that the "Irregulars" had not fought the British in War of Independence. O'Duffy claimed that the Kerry IRA's sole contribution in 1919-21 was, "the shooting of an unfortunate policeman on the day of the truce". In Kerry's case, this was far from true, however some areas such as Sligo and Wexford did see considerably more action in the civil war than in the War of Independence. Other IRA men such as Florence O'Donoghue , formed a group called the "neutral IRA", which tried to reconcile the two factions. Meanwhile the IRA in Northern Ireland maintained their links with Michael Collins . In May 1922 they launched a renewed military offensive, in which they were aided covertly by the National Army. This was interupted by the outbreak of civil war in the new Irish Free State. The IRA had been expanded hugely in 1922, from perhaps 15,000 men before the truce with the British in July 1921, to over 72,000 by November 1922. Veterans of the War of Independence derisively termed the new recuits, "truceileers". These were to divide in broadly the same ratio as the veterans, however, most of them did not take part in the civil war. At the beginning of the civil war, the Free State had about 8000 fighters, mostly pro-treaty IRA Volunteers. The anti-treaty side could muster about 15,000 men but it could not arm them all. At the start of the war, they had just under 7000 rifles, a few machine guns and a handful of armoured cars taken from British garrisons (who were under orders not to fire on IRA units) as they evacuated the country. The remainder of anti-Treaty IRA arms were comprised of Shotguns (3000 of which were confiscated after the civil war) and other civilian weapons. THE CIVIL WAR Main article: Irish Civil War is bombarded by Free State troops to drive out the Irregulars.]] Public support for the Treaty settlement and the new Irish Free State was reflected in the victory of the pro-Treaty side in general elections in 1922 and 1923 . In April 1922, anti-Treaty forces controversially seized a number of public buildings in Dublin , most notably the Four Courts . Eventually, after two months and under British pressure, Michael Collins decided to remove them by force. Pro-Treaty forces bombarded the building, which surrendered after two days. Confused Fighting raged for another five days, with anti Treaty elements of the IRA's Dublin Brigade under Oscar Traynor occupying O'Connell Street until they were dislodged by artillery fire. In July 1922, the anti-Treaty IRA units held most of the south and west of Ireland. However the Republicans, under new Chief of Staff, Liam Lynch soon lost most of the territory they initially controlled. While the anti-Treaty side had a numerical advantage at the very start of the war, they were soon both outnumbered and outgunned. The Free State's National Army was quickly expanded to over 38,000 by the end of 1922 and to 55,000 men and 3000 officers by the end of the war, recruiting Irish ex-servicemen from the British Army amongst others. Additionally, the British met its requests for arms, ammunition, armoured cars, artillery and aeroplanes. by August 1922, the Free State had Re-taken All The Major Towns and territory held by republicans. The Free State's best troops were the Dublin Guard - a unit composed of former IRA men, mostly from the Dublin Brigade's active service unit who were to the forefront in the Free State's offensive of July-August 1922. They sided with the Free State primarily out of personal loyalty to Collins. The anti-treaty IRA were not equipped or trained to fight conventional warfare. Despite some determined resistance to the Free State advance south of Limerick by late August, most of them had dispersed to fight a guerrilla campaign. The anti-treaty guerrilla campaign was spasmodic and ineffective. Much of it was composed of the destruction of infrastructure such as the main railway bridge linking Cork with Dublin . They also burned many public buildings and "commandeered" supplies by force, alienating many civilians. Furthermore, without the public support that had existed during the War Of Independence , the Irregulars found that they could not sustain a guerrilla war such as that fought against Britain. Only in Kerry was a relatively effective campaign fought, with the IRA units re-taking Kenmare and other towns from the Free State on several occasions. The IRA's relative popularity in this area had much to do with the brutality of the occupying Free State troops. The conduct of the Civil War resulted in long-lasting bitterness on both sides. In September special emergency legislation came into effect under which military tribunals were empowered to pass death sentences. The head of the anti-Treaty forces, '' Eventually, on May 24 1923 the Irregulars received an order, issued by Frank Aiken , their chief-of-staff, to "dump arms". Eamon de Valera supported this in his speech "Legion of the Rearguard": sided with Anti-Treatyites during the Civil War, before breaking with Sinn Féin in 1926.]] In de Valera's words, "''Further sacrifice of life would now be vain and continuance of the struggle in arms unwise in the national interest and prejudical to the future of our cause. Military victory must be allowed to rest for the moment with those who have destroyed the Republic. Other means must be sought to safeguard the nation's right.''" By this time thousands of the republican Irregulars were already prisoners of the Free State government led by W.T. Cosgrave ; many more were arrested after they dumped arms and returned to civilian life. By late 1923, over 12,000 anti-treaty IRA men were interned. The prisoners were released over the following year, with Eamon De Valera last to leave Kilmainham Gaol in 1924 . In 1924, the IRA counted 14,500 members in total, but with just over 5000 weapons in its dumps. By 1926, these numbers had shrunk to 5042. By 1930, the IRA possessed less than 2000 members and only 859 rifles, indicating the decline in its military potential. The casualties of the Anti-Treaty IRA in the civil war have never been accurately counted, but are thought to have been considerably more than the 800 or so deaths suffered by the Free State Army, perhaps twice or three times as numerous. IDEOLOGY OF THE POST-CIVIL WAR IRA In 1926 , after failing to persuade Sinn Féin to participate in the political institutions of the Free State, de Valera formed a new political party, called Fianna Fáil , and many Sinn Féin and IRA members left to support him. De Valera would in 1932 become President Of The Executive Council , at the head of the first Fianna Fáil government. The IRA considered itself to be upholding the Republic that was declared in the 1916 Proclamation, and held that the governments of the Irish Free State were illegitimate. It maintained that it remained the army of that Republic, in direct continuity with the IRA of the War of Independence period. It should be noted that there were several competing organisations on the radical republican side of Irish politics during this period. In addition to the IRA, these including the hardline elements of anti-Treaty Sinn Féin who had not followed de Valera into constitutional politics, and the rump of the anti-Treaty members of the Second Dáil , still proclaiming themselves the only legitimate Irish parliament. For most of this period, the IRA's relations with Sinn Féin were poor (IRA members were even forbidden to join the party), despite the reconciliation attempt represented by the 1929 Comhairle Na Poblachta . In December 1938 , a reconciliation finally took place between the IRA and the Second Dáil. Before the republican Fianna Fáil party took power after winning the Irish General Election, 1932 , many republicans viewed the Free State, with its censorship of newspapers and extensive coercive legislation, as a sham democracy, in the service of British imperialism. The IRA remained prepared to take over the country by insurrection, after which it expected to have to fight the British again. In November 1926, the IRA siezed 11 Garda barracks, shooting dead two Gardai . The Free State immediately used its Special Powers Act to intern 110 IRA men the next day. In 1927, IRA men assassinated Free State minister Kevin O'Higgins in revenge for his perceived responsabilty for executions in the civil war. A total of four Gardai were killed by the IRA in the period 1926-1936. When de Valera's Fianna Fail party won the 1932 election, the IRA expected the Free State party Cumann Na NGaedheal not to respect the result and prepared for another civil war. However to their surprise, Cosgrave's party peacefully gave up power and instructed the police and armed forces to obey the new government. In the first years of Fianna Fail government 1932-34, the IRA's membership grew from a low of 1,800 to over 10,000. This can be put down to the radicalisng impact of the Great Depression on the population, which the IRA's new social radicalism (see next section) appealed to. Another important factor was the formation of the Blueshirts - a quasi fascist organisation set up by Eoin O'Duffy , originally composed of veterans of the Free State Army in the Civil War. The IRA and the Blueshirts both attacked political meetings and also fought street brawls agaisnt each other. While most of the fighting was conducted with fists or boots, at least one Blueshirt and one IRA man were shot dead in these clashes. IRA leaders saw in these events the beginnings of a republican revolution and the overthrow of the Free State. They were, however to be disappointed. Initially, De Valera's Fianna Fail government were friendly towards the IRA, legalising the organisation and freeing all their prisoners who had been interned by Cummann na nGaedheal but by 1935 this relationship had turned to enmity on both sides. The IRA accused Fianna Fail of "selling out" by not declaring "The Republic" and by tolerating the continued partiion of Ireland. In 1935, De Valera banned the IRA after they fired shots at police during a strike of Tramway workers in Dublin . However, most of the IRA's republican consticuency were reconciled to the Free State by De Valera's government, which introduced a republican constitution in 1937, abolishing the Oath of Allegiance to the British monarchy and introducing an elected President as head of state. The document also included a territorial claim to Northern Ireland . By the late 1930s at the latest, most Irish people disagreed with the residual Irish Republican Army's claims that it remained the legitimate 'army of the Republic'. In Northern Ireland, the IRA's main role was to try to defend the Catholic community during period outbreaks of sectarian rioting. For this reason, Peadar O'Donnell , a left wing IRA leader who was opposed to sectarian division, said disparagingly, "we don't have an IRA battalion in Belfast, we have a battalion of armed Catholics". THE IRA FROM 1926 TO 1936: FLIRTATIONS WITH SOCIALISM From 1926 to 1936 , the remainder of the IRA was led by Moss (Maurice) Twomey . The organisation was increasingly influenced by left-wing ideas, although the leadership's varying support for these seems to have owed more to pragmatism than to conviction. Many republicans argued that they had lost the civil war because they had not appealed to the social unrest in the country and had lacked any social or economic programme. The IRA intervened in a number of strikes during this period, and IRA members campaigned against the payment of land annuities (in respect of the buying-out of landlords by the former British administration), with Peadar O'Donnell establishing the Anti-Tribute League in 1928. Many Communist Party Of Ireland members were also members of the IRA at this time. Political initiatives such as Saor Éire in 1931 in 1933 were promoted by left-wing IRA members such as George Gilmore , Peadar O'Donnell and Frank Ryan . IRA members also helped establish the "Friends of Soviet Russia", from which they later expelled Communist Party members when relations between the two organisations deteriorated. This burst of what has sometimes been termed "social republicanism" expired in the mid-1930s. In 1931 Saor Éire had quickly collapsed due to the combination of fierce reaction from the Catholic Church, deeply hostile to anything that appeared communist, and repressive legislation immediately introduced by the government. In 1934, left-wing IRA members, including Peadar O'Donnell, Frank Ryan and George Gilmore, frustrated with the failure of the IRA to achieve either The Republic or socialist revolution, left to set up a new party, the Republican Congress . This in turn, was ultimately a failure, partly because Twomey and other conservative elements in the IRA leadership opposed it and forced its supporters to leave the organisation. The Congress itslef also split and collapsed after its first general meeting in 1935. From the debacle of the Republican Congress until it took a leftward turn again in the 1960s, the IRA would be inspired primarily by a conservative, strictly nationalist political outlook. In 1936-37, a number of IRA men were among the Irish fighters (later to become known as the Connolly Column ) who joined the International Brigades to fight for the Spanish Republic in the Spanish Civil War . Frank Ryan was perhaps the most prominent Irish participant. LEGALISATION AND RENEWED REPRESSION: THE 1930S AND 1940S In 1932 Fianna Fáil under de Valera formed its first government in the Irish Free State , and republican prisoners were released and the organisation unbanned. Confrontations between the IRA and the Blueshirts were a feature of political life in the early 1930s, with the former breaking up political meetings of Cumann Na NGaedhael under the slogan "no free speech for traitors" and accusing the latter of being Fascists . In 1935 , the IRA was banned once again, as were the Blueshirts. Moss Twomey was imprisoned, and was succeeded as chief of staff by Seán MacBride . De Valera's government increasingly followed a strict anti-IRA policy. In 1938 , Seán Russell became chief of staff and set about preparations for a bombing campaign against Britain. In January 1939 , the IRA Army Council declared war against Britain, and the Sabotage Campaign began a few days later. In 1939, IRA members stole almost the entire reserve ammunition store of the Irish Army from its dump in the Phoenix Park in Dublin. This provoked the Irish government to re-introduce internment and executions for IRA members. By 1941, the IRA numbered less than 1000 members, many of whom were imprisoned. Most of its able political organisers had left in the mid to late 1930s and its " natural consticuency" had been appropriated by Fianna Fail. THE IRA DURING WORLD WAR II During the Second World War , the IRA leadership hoped for support from Germany to strike against Britain during the war, and Seán Russell travelled to Germany in 1940 to canvass for arms. He became ill and died on board a German U-boat which was bringing him back to Ireland in August that year. Gunther Schuetz, a member of the Abwehr parachuted into Ireland and was almost immediately arrested. On February 28 1942 he escaped. The IRA intended to send him back to Germany with a request for weapons, ammunition, explosives, radio equipment and money. The IRA Army Executive met on April 20 and sanctioned the requests. They resolved “to give military information to powers at war with England”. An IRA courier was arrested on the Dublin-Belfast train with documentation of the decisions taken, and details of the German contact. This led to the arrest of Schuetz, on April 30 , only hours before he was due to set sail. The boat was seized and the crew arrested. In 1942, the IRA launched an armed campaign in Northern Ireland. It has also been claimed that during the war period IRA members may have attempted to aid the German aerial bombing of targets in Northern Ireland . The IRA was severely damaged by the measures taken against it by the governments on both sides of the border during the Second World War. IRA members were interned both north and south of the border, and a number of IRA men, including chief of staff between 1942 and 1944 Charlie Kerins , were executed for criminal offences by the Irish government during the war. Kerins had been tried and found guilty of the murder of a Garda (police man). THE BORDER CAMPAIGN
Under the leadership of Tony Magan from 1948 on, the IRA rebuilt its organisation. In the 1950s it started planning for a renewed armed campaign, and in 1956 recent recruit Seán Cronin , who had considerable military experience, drew up a plan codenamed Operation Harvest. The Border Campaign , as it became known, involved various military columns carrying out a range of military operations from direct attacks on security installations to disruptive actions against infrastructure. Internment without trial, introduced first in Northern Ireland and then in the Republic Of Ireland , curtailed IRA operations and ultimately broke morale. Eighteen people in total were killed during the campaign, of whom seven were members of the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) and eight were members of the IRA itself. Despite the boost to republican morale given by the massive turnout for the funeral in Limerick of IRA member Seán South , the campaign was on the whole a failure, and did not receive significant support from the populace on either side of the border. It petered out in the late 1950s, and was officially ended in February 1962. THE 1960S: MARXIST TENDENCY AND THE 1969 SPLIT In the 1960s the IRA once more came under the influence of left-wing thinkers, especially those such as Desmond Greaves active in the Connolly Association in London. This move to a class-based political outlook and the consequent rejection of any stance that could be seen as sectarian — including the use of IRA arms to defend the beleaguered Catholic communities of Belfast in 1969 — was to be one of the factors in the 1969 split between the Official IRA and Provisional IRA wings of the republican movement, with the latter subscribing to a traditional republican analysis of the situation while the former embraced Marxism . The Provisional IRA embarked on a Thirty Year Armed Campaign against the British presence in Northern Ireland that claimed over 1,700 lives. In 1997 it announced a ceasefire which effectively marked the end of its campaign. In 2005 it formally announced the end of its campaign and destroyed much of its weaponry under international supervision. The organization's political wing, Sinn Fein is a growing electoral force in both Northern Ireland and the Republic. The Official IRA was involved in the Northern Troubles up to 1972, when they called a ceasefire. However, their members on the ground engaged in some armed activities for the rest of the 1970s before effectively disbanding. By the 1980s, they were an essentially political movement and distanced themselves from traditional republicanism, re-naming their political wing Sinn Féin the Workers Party in the Republic of Ireland in 1979 while in Northern Ireland they were known as Republican Clubs until 1981 and The Workers Party Republican Clubs until 1982 before both Northern and Southern sections became The Workers Party in 1982. Feuds between the two IRAs in the 1970s claimed up to 20 lives on either side. FOOTNOTES |
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