The Real IRA

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Beth Bing

Warren G. Hanes

Stephanie Mastores

Ashley Savage

Jeremey Scally

The Real IRA

The Irish Republican Army ideology is still living in Northern Ireland, nearly a century after the organization’s establishment.  Although the IRA has since disbanded, the spirit is kept alive by a number of splinter factions, including the Provisional, Continuity, and Real IRAs.  Not many terrorist organizations can maintain a campaign this extensive in time.  The long history of the IRA campaign of terror leads to many political, social, religious, educational and economic effects.  It also contributes to international problems about which we may only be able to speculate.

The most violent splinter group from the Provisional IRA is named the Real Irish Republican Army (rIRA).  The primary nation of origin and activity is Northern Ireland where they have been operating from late 1997 to the present.  Attacks have also occurred in the United Kingdom and Irish Republic.  The rIRA is composed of dissident IRA members who opposed the Irish peace process and political leadership of Sinn Fein.  They are Nationalist/Separatist terrorists with links to the 32 County Sovereignty Committee, a Republican political group, and the Continuity Irish Republican Army, another splinter group from the IRA (Melaugh).  According to the U.S. Department of State, they want to end British rule in Northern Ireland and politically merge Northern Ireland into the Republic of Ireland.

The Real IRA was founded by Michael “Mickey” McKevitt, who is now in prison serving 30 years.  Since his incarceration, McKevitt has called for the rIRA’s disbandment, although this has not yet occurred (MIPT).  It is hard to confirm how many members are in the rIRA, but most sources estimate between 100 and 200, with approximately 40 members in prison.  

The group predominantly participates in bombings, especially car bombs; however, the U.S. Department of State says they have also been involved in robberies and assassinations.  Their targets include the police in Northern Ireland, Protestant communities in Northern Ireland, the British military, and civilians, according to the State Department.  There is a good deal of conflicting information regarding the number of attacks committed by the Real IRA.  According to the MIPT Terrorism Knowledge Base, the rIRA have participated in 29 total incidents, while the State Department says that there have been more than 80 attacks since 1999.  Another report stated that the rIRA was responsible for nine terrorist attacks in 1998 alone, including its most deadly (Melaugh).

The most effective attack by the Real IRA occurred on August 15, 1998 in Omagh, Northern Ireland. On that day 29 people were killed and around 220 were wounded.  Among the dead was a woman who was 8 months pregnant with twins.  A false warning was issued 30 minutes before the bomb went off to Ulster Television in Belfast.  Law enforcement officials moved people away from the location of the warning, only to have moved them closer to the actual location, causing even more injury (Omagh).  The public was so outraged with the bombing that the Real IRA announced they were ceasing all “military operations,” though they resurfaced in two years time (Paramilitaries).

Currently the Omagh Victims' Civil Action Group is suing McKevitt and four other rIRA members for £14 million.  According to BBC News, “Real IRA leader Michael McKevitt is to challenge the government's decision to give the Omagh bomb relatives almost £750,000 to take a civil court action.”  This is the latest news on the bombing and we should keep watch on what is to happen in the coming months.

        Other attacks worth noting occurred in London.  The BBC History reported that in September 2000 the Real IRA fired a RPG rocket at M16, the British foreign intelligence headquarters, as well as BBC Television in March 2001.  In December 2004 the Real IRA ignited 15 fire bombs in Belfast (Wikipedia).

        The U.S. Department of State reported that the Real IRA has received external aid from supporters in U.S.  Also, they have tried to purchase weapons from the U.S. and Eastern Europe.  The State Department designated the Real IRA a foreign terrorist organization in May 2001 and they remain on the list at present.

The causes of the Irish Republican Army’s terrorist campaign are diverse, as might be expected from a group with a saga as long as theirs.  Influences of both a nationalistic and a religious nature have taken root, ensuring that the situation is rife with preconditions and precipitants.  The volatile political history of Ireland, extending at least as far back as the 16th century, has also had an indelible impact on the terrorist ideology.  History’s place in the Irish conflict and the IRA’s motivations cannot be ignored.

The historical scope of the IRA’s grievances is simply massive, as chronicled by Jonathan White; King Henry VIII’s Protestant Reformation led to centuries of bitter fighting, not only between Irish nationalists and the British themselves, but also between those same Catholic nationalists and their Protestant unionist counterparts.  The disconnect between Catholics and Protestants was fueled by Henry’s daughter Elizabeth I, who took the most “prosperous agrarian section” of Ireland and disbursed it among her English and Scottish Protestant subjects, forcing native Irish to leave their own land.  This decision was exacerbated in the coming years, as the so-called “Plantation of Ulster” expanded (80).

A real wedge was driven between Catholics and Protestants in the late 1600s, when a Catholic named James II claimed a right to the British throne and based his revolt against the true English king, William of Orange, out of Ireland.  Irish Protestants known as “Apprentice boys” defended the city of Derry from a siege orchestrated by James; William’s English forces eventually relieved them of this duty.  Finally, James was defeated at the battle of the Boyne River in 1690.  By the end of the conflict, Irish Protestants had become firmly entrenched within the House of Orange, and to this day the Orange Protestants celebrate their role in quelling the revolt, waving a red cape in front of the Green Catholic Republicans.  “In fact, the current troubles started in 1969, when riots broke out in Londonderry and Belfast following the annual Apprentice Boys parade” (White 81).

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Violence sparked throughout the 1700s and early 1800s, as each generation saw its own martyrs perish to the English.  Beginning in 1796, Thomas Wolfe Tone incited a revolt on the grounds of nationalism, arguing that “Irish independence was more important than religious differences,” but the uprising faltered in 1798.  As the 18th century waned, Protestants and Catholics both formed paramilitary organizations to defend each side’s interest.  The prevailing theme of the 1800s was Republican opposition to Britain’s plans to draw Northern Ireland into the United Kingdom via 1801’s Act of Union (White 81).  This struggle coincided with the notorious potato ...

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