Irish Republican Army

The Irish Republican Army (IRA), which traces its roots to Catholic Irish nationalism in the early 1900s, was considered by many to be a terrorist organization because of certain tactics like bombings and assassinations it used to oppose British rule in Ireland.

The name IRA has been in use since the organization was founded in 1921. From 1969 through 1997, the IRA splintered into a number of organizations, all called the IRA. They included:

•the Official IRA (OIRA)
•the Provisional IRA(PIRA)
•the Real IRA (RIRA),and
•Continuity IRA (CIRA).
The association of the IRA with terrorism comes from the paramilitary activities of the Provisional IRA, which is no longer active.


1969, when the IRA split into the Official IRA, which renounced violence, and the Provisional IRA.


Northern Ireland, with a presence and operations throughout Ireland, Great Britain, and Europe.


From the 1970s-1990s, the IRA received weapons and training from various international sources, most notably American sympathizers, Libya and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).

Connections have also been posited between the IRA and Marxist-leaning terrorist groups, especially at their most active in the 1970s. These include:


The creation of a unified Ireland under Irish, rather than British rule. PIRA used terrorist tactics to protest the Unionist/ Protestant treatment of Catholics in Northern Ireland.


The IRA has always had a relatively small membership, estimated at several hundred members, organized in small, clandestine cells. Its daily operations are organized by a 7-person Army Council.


The IRA is a strictly paramilitary organization. Its political wing is Sinn Féin (We Ourselves, in Gaelic), a party that has represented Republican (Catholic) interests since the turn of the 20th century. When the first Irish assembly was declared in 1918 under the leadership of Sinn Féin, the IRA was considered the official army of the state.


The emergence of the Irish Republican Army has its roots in Ireland's 20th century quest for national independence from Great Britain. In 1801, the Anglican (English Protestant) United Kingdom of Great Britain merged with Roman Catholic Ireland. For the next hundred years, Catholic Irish Nationalists opposed Protestant Irish Unionists, so named because they supported the union with Great Britain.

The IRA began its terrorist attacks on the British army and police following a summer of violent rioting between Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland. For the next generation, the IRA carried out bombings, assassinations and other terrorist attacks against British and Irish Unionist targets. Terrorist activity by the Real IRA and other paramilitary groups continues and, as of the summer of 2006, is on the rise.