The Irish Republican Army: Before and After 1968

Despite the repeated failures of the IRA in its attempt to create a Republic over the decades, the IRA did not dissolve or disintegrate. Instead, the IRA merely went underground continued its existence and dedication to physical force; albeit one that was not a threat until the late 1960s. The IRA had been involved in several campaigns in the years of 1951-62 during which these years had been doubted as the “era of IRA purity”. However, these militant activities of the IRA had stopped since 1962 due to the lack of supporters in the face of Roman Catholic apathy and its rejection in the North. The IRA had attributed its failure to the attitude of the “general public whose minds have been deliberately distracted from the supreme issue facing the Irish people—the unity and freedom of Ireland”. Perhaps it could be argued that this lack of support for the IRA and the apathy during this period could be attributed to the political mood and situation during that period too. The 1960s had been described as “the end of ideology”, where the management of resources had been given more importance and the competition between the various political parties was not about the basis of ideas, or clash of ideas, but on who would be able to manage the country best. It was during this period that the people were more concerned with the provision of frugal comfort for the poor, tax rebates for the rich, and a special position for the Church, all of which was quite possible under the new welfare state. Hence, under such situations, it was not surprising to learn that the IRA did not have much of an appeal to the people. Despite the failures, lack of support and the tendency of the IRA to drift towards the Left in 1962, the IRA did not disband nor turn to parliamentary politics. Instead, the IRA still held firmly to the ideas of Wolfe Tone, the Founding Father of Irish Republicanism that a Republic would eventually be created. Hence, it could be argued that the IRA has disappeared gradually into the realms of history until the 1968 Civil Rights Movement gave the IRA another chance for its resurrection.

The 1968 Civil Rights Movements occurred when the Catholics, having tired to get some form of equality under the law for a long period, decided to follow the example of Martin Luther King in his campaign for civil rights in the United States which was based on non-violence. Their intention in the civil rights marches in 1968 had been that of a desire to be treated as British subjects and be accorded the same British rights. The Catholic community had suffered from poor housing; high unemployment and institutionalized discrimination under the Unionist government. The marchers in the first march held by the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association (NICRA) in Dungannon on 24 August 1969 confronted Stormont, demanding for rights such as one man, one vote in council elections. Other demands included the removal of gerrymandered electoral boundaries; anti-discriminative laws by public authorities; fair allocation of public housing; repeal of Special Powers Act and disbanding of the Royal Ulster Constabulary backed by the B Specials, a predominantly Protestant auxiliary police force. 

Yet the intended peaceful march by the Catholics had been viewed by the Protestants as being a threat to them and the Unionist government. Furthermore, due to the violent history of Ireland, the authorities and Protestants were skeptical to see people protesting peacefully on the streets. The history of violent resistance against the state had probably led to the government’s undertaking of extreme measures against the peaceful protesters who had neither the influence of the IRA nor weapons. However, the protestors demonstrating for changes were attacked by the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) during the civil rights marches which eventually led to mass outbreaks of violence.

Arguably, the aftermath of the civil rights movements had led to the subsequent split and revival of the IRA in 1969. The violence inflicted onto the non-violent demonstrators had led the Catholics to believe that only force could provide them with protection and they saw this in the IRA. However, the IRA had built up a system of auxiliaries during the years of 1968-69, often without arms, as a home guard and the IRA “hardly rated a mention” by 1968. Although the IRA has been regarded as a democratic army with regular elections to determine its leadership under the 1925 Constitution, it did not really exist as a proper organisation. Despite the formal elaborate structure of the IRA, there were only a few men responsible for the work of the Republican Movement as well as the IRA.  This structural problem of the IRA meant that when the civil rights movements turned violent, the IRA was unable to provide adequate protection for the demonstrators. Thus it was not surprising that the IRA was unable to protect the Catholics from the sectarian attacks, further discrediting the IRA. This failure led to an internal disagreement amongst the IRA at an IRA convention in December 1969 where the differences in tactics and principles led to its formal split in 1969. One group had favoured a return to the armed strategy before 1962 while the other voted in favour of politics. The official majority of the IRA formed the Officials, with Marxist-orientation advocated a political solution to the problem by creating a socialist republic of thirty-two counties, and the Provisional IRA (the Provos) was organised in a more traditional way of resistance and military campaigns engaged in terrorist activities.

The incidents gave of 1968-69 led to the restructuring of the IRA following its split. It is important to note that most of the demonstrations in 1968 did not have much elements of the IRA in it as the IRA at that time was still undergoing restructuring. The subsequent years thereafter saw the Provisional IRA recruiting and training new members. The Provos started arming themselves with weapons at the beginning of 1970 to defend the Catholics and were determined not to let the incident of August 1969 in which they were caught defenseless repeat itself again. By 1972, the Provos were ready to take on a more prominent role in the activities in Ireland. In the 1972 Bloody Incident, the mishandling of the situation by the army, by firing on the crowd, had resulted in the immediate escalation of conflicts, violence and riots, creating a new wave of violence as the Provos retaliated, tic-for-tac. It could be argued that the resurgence of the IRA and its policy of violence was largely a result of the extreme measures that the government undertook against the protestors during the civil marches. In the march to Derry, the protestors were attacked by the RUC. With the endless protests, students’ marches and the RUC’s intimidation of the people, the situation went out of control.

The Provisional Irish Republican Army remains the oldest revolutionary group in the world and has been involved in many terrorist activities since its inception in 1969 for their nationalistic cause. In my opinion, the IRA has not been a force that was too threatening to the regime in Northern Ireland since the people initially had not given their support to the organisation. The civil marches marked the turning point in the IRA’s history allowing it to resurrect from its early demise. If the authorities had approached and dealt with the civil rights protesters with the appropriate attitude and mindset instead of allowing the police and army use violence on the civilians, the civil marches would not have turned violent and the IRA would not have gotten the chance to reorganise themselves and become a force to be reckoned with during that period.

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