Provisional Irish Republican Army

Provisional Irish Republican Army
Out of the Ashes Arose the Provisionals.
Existence	1969–present
Type	Terrorists
Position	Irish republicanism Irish nationalism
Location	Ireland
Affiliation	Provisional Sinn Féin Provisional Fianna Éireann

The Provisional Irish Republican Army also known as the PIRA and the Provos, are an Irish republican, paramilitary terrorist organisation that, until the Belfast Agreement, sought to end the status of Northern Ireland being part of the United Kingdom and bring about a united Ireland by murderous terrorism and political persuasion. It is the paramilitary wing of Provisional Sinn Féin, a political party which stands in elections.

It emerged in 1969 after a split took place within the irregular IRA; the Provos were initially the republican faction (the Official IRA were explicitly Marxist), but began to become more Marxified during the 1980s, though it has always included a variety of political views.

History

Since its emergence in 1969, its stated aim has been the overthrow of Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland and their replacement by a New Ireland; sovereign, national and socialist in nature. The organisation is classified as an illegal terrorist group by the government of the United Kingdom and as an illegal organisation in the Republic of Ireland. The PIRA sees itself as a direct continuation of the original Irish Republican Army (the army of the Irish Republic — 1919–1921) that fought in the Irish War of Independence. Like all other organisations calling themselves the IRA, the Provisionals refer to themselves in public announcements and internal discussions as "The Irish Volunteers", which is also the title of the Irish Defence Forces (the Irish army).

On 28 July 2005, the PIRA Army Council announced an end to its armed campaign, stating that it would work to achieve its aims using "purely political and democratic programmes through exclusively peaceful means" and that IRA "Volunteers must not engage in any other activities whatsoever".

Arms

Most of the arms in the possession of the PIRA came from private dealers in the United States, through associations with groups like NORAID. Before this time the IRA would raid British Army arms depots and even sometimes Irish Army ones. Security was heightened however and the old guns they had leftover from the anti-Treaty IRA's Border Campaign were not suitable for modern warfare. The best known US-originated guns associated with the PIRA were Armalite (AR-18) rifles, Browning pistols and M60 machine guns. Many arms also came from Libya under Muammar Gaddafi, who was impressed with the PIRA; this included AK-47 rifles, RPG-7 rocket launchers, MP5 submachine guns and semtex eplosives. Despite the PIRA being "Marxist" the only communist country where arms were imported from was Czechoslovakia and this was to a much lesser extent than the other sources. They did, however, have links with other communist-funded terrorist groups and parties such as the South African ANC.

Casualties during the Troubles

Members of the PIRA.

The PIRA have reportedly killed more people than any other organisation since the Northern Ireland Troubles began. In addition, they have killed more Roman Catholics, more Protestants, more civilians and more foreigners (those not from Northern Ireland) than any other organisation. In the republican analysis of the conflict, the British Army, along with organisations such as the UVF, UDR and UDA represent an alliance of state and paramilitary forces ranged against them.

Two very detailed studies of deaths in the Troubles, the CAIN project at the University of Ulster, and Lost Lives, differ slightly on the numbers killed by the Provisional IRA but a rough synthesis gives a figure of 1,800 deaths. Of these, roughly 1,100 were members of the security forces - British Army, Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) and Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR), between 600 and 650 were civilians and the remainder were either loyalist or republican paramilitaries (including over 100 IRA members accidentally killed by their own bombs).

It has also been estimated that the IRA also injured over 6,000 British Army, UDR and RUC and up to 14,000 civilians, during The Troubles. The IRA lost a little under 300 members killed in the Troubles. In addition, roughly 50-60 members of the Sinn Féin party were also killed.

Far more common than the killing of IRA however, was their imprisonment. Journalists Eamonn Mallie and Patrick Bishop estimate in their book The Provisional IRA, that between eight and ten thousand members of the organisation had been imprisoned by the mid-1980s, a number they also give as the total number of past and present IRA members at that time. This would appear it be a gross exaggeration given that nothing like that degree of prison accommodation exists in Northern Ireland.

Mainland Britain

The PIRA also carried out many deadly terrorist attacks and murders in mainland Britain. On 21st November 1974 bombs were detonated in two public houses in Birmingham. A former senior officer of the provisional IRA later confessed to their involvement in 2014. 21 people were killed and 182 injured.

On 20th July 1982 the Hyde Park and Regent's Park bombings were carried out in London. Members of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) detonated two improvised explosive devices (bombs) during British military ceremonies both in central London. The bombs killed four soldiers of the Blues and Royals cavalry division at Hyde Park, and seven bandsmen of the Royal Green Jackets at Regent's Park. Seven of the Blues and Royals' horses were also killed in the attack. One seriously injured horse, Sefton, survived, was featured on television programmes, and was awarded "Horse of the Year". In 1987, Gilbert "Danny" McNamee was convicted of making the Hyde Park bomb and gaoled for 25 years. He served 12 years before being released under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement. In 2013, IRA member John Downey was charged with four counts of murder in relation to the Hyde Park attack; his trial began in January 2014, but collapsed the following month. On 18 December 2019, the High Court of Justice ruled in a civil case that John Downey was an "active participant" in the bombing.

Members of the Provisional Irish Republican Army planted the time bomb in a car which exploded outside Harrods department store in Knightsbridge, London, on 17 December 1983. The blast killed three police officers and three civilians, injured 86 people, some seriously, and caused much damage.

On 22nd September 1989 the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) exploded a time-bomb at the Royal Marines School of Music building, a professional training centre for musicians of the Royal Marines Band Service, the musical arm of the Royal Navy, at Deal in Kent. The building collapsed, killing 11 musicians from the Royal Marines Band Service and wounding another 21.

On 24th April 1993 the PIRA detonated a vast truck-bomb in Bishopsgate, City of London, causing huge damage. A news photographer was killed in the blast and 44 people were injured, with fatalities minimised due to its occurrence on a Saturday. The blast destroyed the nearby ancient St Ethelburga's church and wrecked parts of Liverpool Street station and the NatWest Tower.

On 15 June 1996, the PIRA detonated a lorry bomb on Corporation Street in the centre of Manchester, England. It was the biggest bomb detonated in Great Britain since the Second World War. It targeted the city's infrastructure and economy and caused significant damage, estimated by insurers at £700 million,

Martin McGuinness

In March 2017 one of the Provisional IRA's leading terrorists, Martin McGuiness, died. Prime Minister Theresa May said in a statement: “While I can never condone the path he took in the earlier part of his life, Martin McGuinness ultimately played a defining role in leading the republican movement away from violence” and was later a pioneer of power-sharing in Northern Ireland.

Chiefs of Staff

Leader	From	Until	Notes
John Stephenson	1969	1972	Born in London to ethnically English parents.
Joe Cahill	1972	1973	Born in West Belfast, member of Fianna Éireann as a youth and took part in the irregular IRA's Northern Campaign during World War II.
Séamus Twomey	1973	1973	Grew up on the Falls Road in Belfast, a working-class traditional republican he staunchly opposed the attempts by Cathal Goulding & others to turn the republican movement Marxist in the 1960s.
Éamonn O'Doherty	1973	1974	Southern from county Tipperary and earlier participant in the Border Campaign. During the 1986 split, he followed Republican Sinn Féin.
Séamus Twomey	1974	1977	Second spell as Chief of Staff of the PIRA.
Gerry Adams	1977	1978	Suspicious racial background, but comes from republican family in West Belfast. Involved in Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association (NICRA) which was contaminated with communists such as Betty Sinclair. Adams' exact position is unclear.
Martin McGuinness	1978	1982	Originally a member of the Official IRA, but soon switched to the Provos. His political views regarding Marxism or traditionalism are unclear. Later political life shows a liberal outlook.
Ivor Bell	1982	1983	Racially suspect Ulster-Scots heritage. He and Brian Keenan were main Marxism pushers in PIRA. Developed links to the communist GRU (military intelligence of the Soviet terror regime) and Stasi.
Kevin McKenna	1983	1997	.
Thomas Murphy	1997	present	.

External links

• The Decider at Irish Independent
• Crimes in Ireland by Karl Winn