Irish National Liberation Army
From Metapedia
The Irish National Liberation Army is an Irish republican para-military organisation which was formed on December 8, 1974. Sharing a common ideology with the Irish Republican Socialist Movement (a political wing, the Irish Republican Socialist Party (IRSP), was formed the same day). It enjoyed its peak of influence in the late 1970s and early 1980s and is now one of a number of small armed republican groups in Ireland. In its earliest days, the INLA was known as the People's Liberation Army (PLA). During the PLA period, the group's purpose was primarily to protect IRSP members from attacks by the Official Irish Republican Army (Official IRA).
The founders of the INLA were Seamus Costello and other activists who had left or been forced out of the Official IRA in the wake of the OIRA's 1972 ceasefire and the increasingly reformist approach of Official Sinn Fein. Costello espoused a mixture of traditional Republican militarism and Marxist-oriented politics. Shortly after it was founded, the INLA came under attack from their former comrades in the OIRA, who wanted to destroy the new grouping before it could get off the ground.
On 20 February 1975, Hugh Ferguson, an INLA member and an IRSP branch chairperson, was the first person to be killed in the feud. One of the first military operations of the INLA was the murder of Billy McMillen, a leading OIRA member in Belfast and this was followed by several more assassinations on both sides, the most prominent victim being Seamus Costello, who was shot dead on North Strand Road in Dublin on 6 October 1977. Costello's death was a severe blow to the INLA, as he was their most able political and military leader. It has also recently been claimed by some in the Republican Socialist Movement that one of their members killed in 1975, Brendan McNamee, was actually killed by Provisional Irish Republican Army members. The Officials had denied involvement at the time of the killing and had instead blamed it on the Provisionals (Provos) who also denied involvement. This has not however been confirmed by the IRSP officially.
