Contents. Mark schemes 1

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Assignment - section B

How has the IRA attempted to re-unite the Republic of Ireland with

Northern Ireland since 1972?

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IRA and Irish unity

assignment and framework - hints on structuring your essay

Paragraph one - introduction

This is your introduction and should be kept brief. Say who the IRA are, what they want, what methods they use etc. Also write a sentence showing that you understand what the question is asking. For example, the IRA has used various and changing methods in its attempt to unite Ireland. Some trends more constant than others and perhaps some more successful than others.

Paragraph two - violent methods

Violent methods. Mention different bombing raids through time and particularly the change in location. Why did the IRA do this? How successful was the IRA? Also talk about their different targets. Split them up into political, social, economic and military. Look for patterns within these For example, is the military a constant target or just a phase that failed? Are there more political than social targets and if so, why? Have the IRA stopped targetting any groups? Look for change and say WHY you think the changes happened.

Paragraph three - political methods

Political methods. Mention the hunger strikers and why you think they stopped. Write about Sinn Fein (compare with the Fenians to show change and continuity) and the role of Gerry Adams. How successful? Why did the IRA change to using political tactics? More successful? Write about the ceasefires and especially write about the éAgreement‘ that is in the news NOW. Does it show that political tactics work better? Was the IRA right to change its tactics?

Paragraph four - conclusion

Paragraph four is your conclusion and is very important. Summarise your answer. Talk about the links you have found and the patterns and changes over time. You must answer the question here.

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IRA

origins

The Irish Republican Army

The IRA was organised in January 1919 by Michael Collins, an extreme Irish nationalist leader, with the aim of ousting the British and unifying Ireland through terrorist tacts.

A British volunteer army, the ’Black and Tans , was brought to Ireland to help quell the ’Troubles of 1919-22. This hated symbol of British repression was fiercely fought by the IRA

The first political assassination carried out by the IRA was in June 1921. The victim was Field Marshal Sir Henry Wilson, Chief of the Imperial Staff.

Eamonn de Valera, who took part in the Easter Rising of 1916 but escaped execution became leader of the IRA in 1921 after Michael Collins was branded a traitor by accepting the partition of Ireland and the retention of the six counties of Northern Ireland within the United Kingdom. Civil war broke out between the IRA

and moderate republicans and continued until 1923. The IRA was outlawed in Ireland for violent acts committed in 1930 and 1931. In 1936, terrorism threatened to destabilise the Irish Free State and the internment of members of the IRA began.

The IRA carried out a bombing campaign in England in 1939-40 in an attempt to coerce the British government into making concessions over Northern Ireland. This campaign failed in its objectives as did a cross-border campaign in 1956-62

When finally the civil rights movement took off in Northern |Ireland in 1969, the ’Troubles began again. A determined effort by the IRA to destabilise Northern Ireland with bomb explosions and assassinations finally spread to the British mainland. However, the objectives of ousting the British and unifying Ireland by force have still not been achieved. Nor do they seem likely to be.

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IRA

timeline

Fill the gaps on the timeline

1919

Started by Michael Collins

British volunteer army, the Black and Tans, were

sent in

1921

The IRA was outlawed in Ireland for violent act.

The IRA carried out a bombing campaign in

England

1956-62

1969

Today

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Q

How did the IRA start?

A

The IRA claims lineage running back through the 19th

-century Fenians, past the rebels of 1798 and back into the green mists of lamest anyone who ever took up arms against Britain.

In this century it claims direct descent from the 1916 rebels who laid the basis for the south‘s independence. The 1916 Proclamation of Independence is the nearest the IRA has to holy writ: In the name of God and of the dead generations from which she receives her old tradition of nationhood, Ireland through us summons her children to her flag and strikes for her freedom. The rebels refused to recognise the limited form of home rule originally granted by Britain and fought, in the bitter civil war of the 1920s, against those who favoured a compromise treaty with the British.

Over the decades most of those who had opposed de treaty swallowed their pride and, like Eamon de Valera, slipped into mainstream political fife. The IRA became the refuge of diehards. At times, such m during the 1940s,

membership was down to a couple of dozen, but the outbreak of the troubles in 1969 brought a huge expansion.

Q

What does the IRA want?

A

In two words, Brits out. It believes that Ireland‘s endemic violence, together with many of its economic and other problems, are the direct result of the British presence.

It wants Britain to admit defeat and declare its intent to withdraw from Northern Ireland. It then wants talks on the best way to effect a withdrawal; and later it wants Irishmen of all persuasions to sit down and decide together on how to run Ireland in the aftermath of a British pull-out.

After withdrawal, the republican theory goes. the border will well away and nationalists and Unionists will live in peace in a Brit-free Ireland. The IRA says it would not attempt to seize power and that Ireland‘s precise form of future government would be decided democratically.

IRA

Who are they?

What do they want?

Extracts taken from

The Independent on Sunday, 22 November 1992

Q

Is the present IRA campaign in Britain different from those in the past?

A

Yes. IRA bombs have been going off sporadically in England since the early Seventies: there were the Birmingham and Guildford pub bombings, explosion which killed soldiers in

Hyde Park and Regent‘s Park and the bombs at Harrods and the Grand Hotel in Brighton.

The difference now is that the IRA is intent on waging permanent war in England, and has established a structure that is capable of absorbing occasional losses. Hindsight suggests that the organisation look a strategic decision in the mid-Eighties on how to use the large quantities of Semtex and other materials that had been supplied to it by Colonel Gaddafi‘s regime in Libya. IRA commanders decided they had enough equipment not only to step up their campaign in Northern Ireland but also to wage a large-scale campaign m Britain. A Semtex find m Cheshire in 1987 held up their plans, and it was not until mid-1988 that the bombing of Army premises at Mill Hill in north London heralded the start of the present campaign. Since then the IRA has had its successes and setbacks, but it has kept up the pressure with a stream of attacks.

Q

Why this increased emphasis on bombing in Britain?

A

The cliche that one bomb in London is worth 20 in Belfast is correct. In Northern Ireland last Year there were 230 explosions, only a handful of which rated any detailed mention in the British media. Almost any bombing in England, by contrast, will attract coverage.

Since the IRA is trying to affect British public and hence British political opinion, it makes tactical sense for it to strike in Britain as much as possible. In four years it has exported to Britain many of the features of Northern Ireland terrorism, including bombings of various kinds, shootings, mortar attacks, incendiaries and so on.

The theory is that the public will realise that bombs will be permanent fixture of life in Britain so long as the troops remain in Northern Ireland. The public will then, the IRA hopes, put pressure on British politicians to bring the soldiers home. Yet four years of a sustained bombing campaign has not noticeably increased troops out sentiment in Britain. To say that it hasn‘t worked. the IRA replies that it hasn‘t worked - yet.

Q

How many members does the IRA have?

A

A difficult question to answer, but one measurement is the vote for Sinn Fein, which gives an idea of the numbers prepared at least to tolerate IRA violence. Sinn Fein received 78,000 votes in Northern Ireland in this year‘s [1992] Westminster election which amounted to exactly 10 per cent of the total and 30 per cent of the nationalist vote.

This is well down from its high point in 1983 when it won 102,000 votes, more than 40 per cent of the vote. In the south, the Sinn Fein vote has dwindled ed almost to vanishing point - 1.2 per cent.

It also has to he understood that those who support the IRA have the power to impose certain rules upon it. Many of those people, for example, approve of killings of soldiers or policemen but frown on civilian casualties.

A

The security forces estimate around 500, though this is a hard core of activists who can depend on a much wider circle of second-rank supporters and sympathisers. Over the last 20 years 5,000 of more have passed through the ranks before being imprisoned, shot or retired for various reasons.

IRA numbers are

deliberately kept down on the principle that every twentieth member is likely to be an informer working for police or Army. Recruits are generally in their teens or twenties.

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IRA

who are they and what do they want - tasks?

Answer the questions on this sheet

1. What does the IRA stand for?

2. Tick which of the following words applies to the IRA.

Nationalist

violent

Unionist

Republican

peaceful

Catholic

Orange

terrorist

Protestant

3. Who was Michael Collins?

4. Who was Eamonn de Valera?

5. How did the IRA start?

6. What do they want?

7. What do they do?

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IRA recruitment poster

IRA

revival

Arms searches

The army was placed under the control of the Unionist government and found itself in a complex situation. It had been sent into Northern Ireland to prevent civil war but its presence provided the IRA, determined to destroy the state, with an ideal target. If the army did nothing but wait, the IRA might gradually acquire the resources to mount an aggressive campaign against it. If the army moved against the IRA it could be interpreted that they were on the side of unionists and against Catholics. In effect, the army became piggy in the middle (a phrase used by D Hamill in the title of his book, Pig in the Middle: The Army in Northern Ireland, 1985).

Arms searches alienate the population

Without inside information as to the exact whereabouts of terrorist weapons and documents, the security forces have little option but to search on the vaguest suspicions - nothing is more certain to alienate the population.

R Evelegh, Peacekeeping in a Democratic Society. The Lessons of Northern Ireland, 1978, with the permission of C Hurst & Company Ltd

Meanwhile, the IRA had split into two groups. The

éOfficial‘ IRA and the éProvisional‘ IRA. The

éOfficials‘ were based in Southern Ireland. They wanted to continue the struggle to reunite Ireland by. peaceful methods. The éProvos‘, based in Northern Ireland, believed that only force could bring about an end to the British occupation of their country.

During the first six months of 1970 the Provisional IRA recruited new members and collected arms. The British Arms. knew this. They advised the Unionist Government to ban the Orange Marches due to take place on 1 April. This advice was ignored. Serious rioting broke out in the Ballymurphy estate in West Belfast:

When a second night s rioting began in Ballymurphy on the evening of 2 April, 600 troops supported by five Saracen armoured cars moved into the estate. As a show of force it was counter-productive. The Catholic mob showered the troops with stones and bottles. I m not haring my men stoned like that, a senior officer said. The order to use CS gas was given.

The smoke rolled in clouds down the streets and gulleys of the estate, choking rioters and peaceful citizens in their homes alike. The army never grasped that a weapon like CS gas produces a common reaction among its victims: it creates solidarity (a feeling of togetherness) where there was none before. One knowledgeable local thought afterwards that those Ballymurphy riots gave the first great boost to the Provisional IRA recruiting campaign.

(The Sunday Times) By now there were frequent shootings and gun battles between the Provisional IRA and the Ulster Volunteer

Force (see B). The British Army, decided

to éget tough‘. On 3 July troops entered the Catholic Lower Falls area of Belfast to search for weapons and ammunition belonging to the Provisional IRA. They took over the whole area and imposed a curfew on the people living there. During the house to house search for arms the soldiers smashed-in doors and broke up furniture, leaving a trail of destruction behind them. At the end of all this they, had discovered 30 rifles, 24 shot-guns and 52 pistols - not many, considering that there were 100,000 licensed guns in Northern Ireland. The action of the British troops upset and alienated the people of the Lower Falls area. Catholics in Belfast began to see the army as another weapon that the Unionist Government would use against them.

The violence got worse. In February 197 1 the Provisional IRA shot a soldier - Gunner Curtis. He was the first British soldier to be killed in Northern Ireland since the troops were sent onto the streets in August 1969.

1971 New Year Outburst of éour of season‘ violence. The Army and Provisional IRA co-operated to control mobs in the Catholic areas.

February First British soldier killed since troops first intervened in 1969. Army searches of Catholic areas provoked further violence. 3 Scottish soldiers were murdered on the outskirts of Belfast.

’For God s sake bring me a large Scotch. What a bloody awful country. (A)

This is what the new Conservative British Home Secretary, Reginald Maudling, was reported to have said as his plane left Northern Ireland in July 1970. He had just been on a visit to find out for himself the cause of the riots and bombings.

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IRA

tactics

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How has the IRA attempted to re-unite Southern Ireland with Northern Ireland since 1972

Key method = violent or political

target = political, social, economic, military

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IRA

different perspectives - terrorists or freedom fighters?

Look at the sources which follow and answer the following questions

. 1. Look at source C. What is meant by the phrase éThe use of the label ”terrorist is designed

to prevent people thinking about the real situation in Ireland‘?

2. What was the intended purpose of the actions taken by Bobby Sands (source D)? Do you think it would be an effective way of gaining support?

3. What does the author of the caption to source E believe the purpose of Bobby Sands‘s actions to have been?

4. Look at the complete collection of sources showing IRA activities in the 1980s and 1990s. Do they seem to come within the definition of terrorism given in source A?

5. Look at source F which is taken from the pro-IRA paper Troops Out. éIt is obviously anti-British and is therefore useless as evidence of the troubles in Northern Ireland. A historian can learn nothing from it.‘ Explain why you agree or disagree with this statement.

6. If people kill, bomb and kidnap, doe is matter whether they are called éterrorists‘ or é freedom-fighters‘? Why are these labels so important?

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Sands - a propagandist suicide

Source F Troops out

IRA

different perspectives - sources A-G

Source A - definition of terrorism Central Intelligence Agency USA, 1980

The threat or use of violence for political purposes by individuals or groups, whether acting for or in opposition to established governmental authority, when such actions are intended to shock, stun or intimidate a target group wider than the immediate victims.

Source B - British government view Roy Mason, Northern Ireland Secretary, 1977

The IRA are gangsters and gunmen .... clearly and decisively rejected by the vast majority of the community of Northern Ireland.

Source E

Source D Newspaper report, 1981

IRA hunger striker stands for parliament March 15. Events in

troubled Northern Ireland took an ominous term today as a 27yearold convicted terrorist -on hunger strike with three others in the Maze prison - was put up as a Republican candidate in a by-election.

Bobby Sands, serving a 14-year sentence for a firearms offence, has been fasting for two weeks. The protest stems from a demand by IRA prisoners for éprisoner of war‘ status involving segregation from loyalist supporters in the Maze.

The strike is believed to have been carefully timed to coincide with t h e t r a d i t i o n a l commemoration of the 1916 Dublin Easter rising.

Sands, said to be the écommander‘ of the IRA prisoners, played a major role in last

December‘s

hunger-strike when he acted a negotiator. That strike ended after 55 days. After his release from a five year sentence, he was arrested after a bombing attack and received 14 years. Source C Troops out, pro-IRA paper

The éterrorist campaign‘ is a guerrilla war between the nationalist population and an occupying army .... The use of the label éterrorist‘ is designed to prevent people thinking about the real situation in Ireland. Too often people fear that to criticise the [British] army means ésupporting terrorism‘. But Britain is waging a war in Ireland and the Provisional IRA exists today because the nationalist community has had to take arms to defend itself in that war.

Source G

To some extent, whether you see someone as a terrorist or a freedom fighter will depend on your values, attitudes and prejudices. It may simply depend upon which side you are on.

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IRA

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IRA

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April 9. Four members of the Ulster Defence Regiment died instantly today when an IRA bomb, thought to have contained over 1,000 pounds of explosive, was detonated beneath their Land-Rover on a country road in County Down.

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