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I is for internment of the innocent and free
R is for resistance to the laws of tyranny
E is for the English who have torn our land apart
L is for the love of freedom in every Irish heart
A is for the answer we`re all searching for
N is for one nation and an end to this long war
D is for the dream of millions longing to be free.
That`s how I spell Ireland, that`s what Ireland me

2006

THE FIVE DEMANDS

2006

1. The Irish Government should produce a Green Paper on Irish Unity.

2. The work of the All Ireland Ministerial Council should be expanded and additional All Ireland Implementation Bodies created.

3. Westminster MP's elected in the six Counties should be accorded speaking rights in the Dail.

4. Voting rights for the presidential elections should be extended to the citizens in the six counties.

5. The Irish Government should actively engage with the British Government and Unionism to promote and seek support for re-unification.

The Irish historian Fr Francis X Martin,OSA made the point that the modern Irish Army was founded on November 25, 1913 when the Irish Volunteers cam into eistence in the Rotunda Rink, Dublin.The army was given the title ‘The Irish Volunteers’ or Oglaigh na hEireann.That title was persisted in its Irish Form, and was re-affirmed as the official name of the army in the Defence act of 1954.

Ní bhrisfidh siad mé mar tá an fonn saoirse, agus saoirse mhuintir
na hÉireann i mo chroí.Tiocfaidh lá eigin nuair a bheidh an fonn
saoirse seo le taispeáint ag daoine go léir na hÉireann ansin
tchífidh muid éirí ná gealaí.

They wont break me because the desire for freedom, and the
freedom of the Irish people, is in my heart. The day will
dawn when all the people of Ireland will have the desire for
freedom to show. It is then that we will see the rising of the moon.

Patrick Pearse was born in Dublin, Ireland.

He completed his degree in Arts and Law at the Royal University in 1901.

He and his brother, Willie, passionately fought for Irish Independence.  His great love was a young student who drowned in a tragic accident.  Pearse was an accomplished Irish writer who was editor of the Gallic League's paper, An Claideamh Soluis (The Sword of Light).  He also founded the St. Enda's School in Country Dublin.  Yeats refers to Pearse in "Easter 1916" as the man who "had kept a school / and rode our winged horse" (24-25).  The "winged horse" represents Pegasus, a figure from Greek mythology, which suggests Pearse's skill as a writer.

AND I say to  my people's masters: Beware,
Beware of the thing that is coming, beware of the risen people,
Who shall take what ye would not give. Did ye think to conquer the people,
Or that Law is stronger than life and than men's desire to be free?
We will try it out with you, ye that have harried and held,
Ye that have bullied and bribed, ....... tyrants,hypocrites, liars!

 The Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA) is a guerrilla army, demanding the reunification of Ireland. It has been on ceasefire since 1997. It is also known as the Provisional IRA, the Provos and the Irish Republican Army, is most commonly referred to simply as the IRA, although several groups claim that title. For a history of these groups see the Irish Republican Army entry.

Formation of the Provisional IRA
The PIRA was formed in 1969, with the stated aim of removing the British from Northern Ireland, protecting Catholics from Loyalist sectarian attacks, and to the unification of Ireland by force. It is organized into small, tightly knit cells under the leadership of the General Army Council. Due to its frequent use of bombings, its assassination of politicians and diplomats, its targetted killings of hundreds of policemen and soldiers predominantly though not exclusively in Northern Ireland and its alleged role in racketeering, propagated from 1976 onward by British Army press and media outlets, it is generally described as a terrorist group, although serious research and indepth look into the conflict show it easily to be more of a guerilla group (see Armed Struggle: The History of the IRA, Richard English, 2003. p 381).

Split from the 'Officials'
The Provos were initially a splinter group of the ‘Official’ IRA, which claimed descent from the Old IRA, which was the army of the Irish Republic, (1919-22), and which split into pro- and anti-treaty factions during the Irish Civil War. The 'Officials', or ‘Official’ IRA, moved to a more extreme Marxist analysis and political sway of the 'Irish Problem' in the mid 1960s. The Provos held to a more traditional republican analysis and became larger and more successful, eventually overshadowing the original group. The name arose when those who were unhappy with the IRA's Army Council formed a "Provisional Army Council" of their own, echoing in turn the "Provisional Government" proclaimed during the Easter Rising of 1916.

The split in the armed wing of the republican movement was mirrored in the separation of their political wing, Provisional Sinn Féin (later known simply as Sinn Féin), from the older organisation (which itself eventually became the Workers' Party). The new Provisional group was less committed to a revolutionary class-based socialist view of the situation.

The PIRA has several hundred members and several thousand sympathizers, although its strength may have been affected by operatives leaving the organization to join hardline splinter groups. While it and its political wing, Sinn Féin, operated on the belief that it 'spoke for Ireland', at no stage has it never had mass support. Even with the end of its war and the entry of its ministers into government in Stormont, and with all the resulting media exposure and good-will from some, it still receives relatively small support in the Republic of Ireland (5 TDs out of 166). In Northern Ireland its support base is stronger but still remains anything but politically dominant, though if it gets more MLAs (Members of the Legislative Assembly at Stormont) a member of the party may become Deputy First Minister. (That post was most recently held by Mark Durkan, leader of the nationalist Social Democratic and Labour Party, which currently has more MLAs than Sinn Féin.)

In the past, the movement's appeal was hurt badly by some of its bombing 'outrages', notably the late-timed explosion of a bomb set for Crown forces, but unfortunately and tragically killing men and women attending a Remembrance Day ceremony at the cenotaph in Enniskillen in 1987 and the killing of two children at Warrington, which led to tens of thousands of people packing O'Connell Street in Dublin calling for the end to their campaign of violence.

The PIRA received funds and arms from sympathizers in the United States, notably from an organisation called Noraid (Irish Northern Aid) and has received aid from a variety of groups and countries and considerable training and arms from Libya and, at one time, & the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO). This support has been weakened by so called "War against Terrorism", the events of September 11th and the discovery of three PIRA suspects in Colombia who were allegedly training Colombian FARC terrorists: AP/RN released a note from the IRA about the 3: "'We wish to make it clear that the Army Council sent no one to Columbia to train or to engage in any military cooperation with any group' - AP/RN 20 Sept. 2001."

The peace process
Calls from Sinn Féin have lead the PIRA to commence disarming in a process that has been overviewed by General John de Chastelain's decommissioning organisation in October, 2001. However, following the collapse of the Stormont power-sharing government in 2002, which was partially triggered off by allegations that republican spies were operating within Parliament Buildings and the Civil Service, the PIRA abandoned their association with General de Chastelain. It is expected that if and when power-sharing resumes, the PIRA disarmament process will begin again, though it is already years behind schedule. Increasing numbers of people, from the Ulster Unionists under David Trimble and the SDLP under Mark Durkan to the Irish Government under Bertie Ahern and the mainstream Irish media, have begun demanding not merely decommissioning, which was meant to have been completed by now, but the wholesale disbandment of the IRA.

In the past few weeks (late Nov, early Dec 2004), new hopes of a new and revitalized power-sharing agreement has been raised, as usual the Unionists are demanding total IRA disarmament, but this time with photographic proof of their destruction or disabling beyond any future use, for offensive or defensive means.

Activities
The Provisional IRA's activities have included bombings, assassinations, abductions of informers or those suspected of informing information to RUC or the British army, punishment beatings mainly directed against drug dealers, and other criminal offenders. Targets have included the British Military, the Royal Ulster Constabulary, civilians that help support Crown and Unionist forces (ie. Construction Worker’s, Managers or Financial person's, Unionist/British right-wing politicians), senior British Government officials, and Northern Irish Members of Parliament. Members of the Garda Siochana (The Republic of Ireland's police force) have also been killed, most notoriously Detective Garda Gerry McCabe, who was shot and killed after the ceasefire. It is claimed that elements of the PIRA are involved in recent months in a spate of bank robberies throughout the island, allegedly to build up funds to 'pension off' PIRA members and so facilitate disbandment. Loyalist paramilitary groups such as the UVF and the UDA are currently not on 'ceasefire' and are engaged in an internal war, as well as continuing attacks against Catholic homes and families, one reported during November 24-26 2004, where a pensioner in County Derry was attacked in her home, forced down to the floor, while her house was trashed. PIRA bombing campaigns have been conducted against rail and London Underground (Subway) stations and shopping areas on Great Britain, and a British military facility on the European Continent. The IRA has been observing a cease-fire since July 1997 (although hardline splinter groups such as the Real IRA are still active on the island of Great Britain) and previously observed a cease-fire from 1 September 1994 to February 1996.

Notable events included:

• 21 July 1972 'Belfast Bomb Blitz.'
  

  21 Bombs exploded around Belfast aimed at causing economic damage. 9 people were killed. Accurate warnings had been given by the IRA for all 21 bombs, except two; Cavehill Road & Oxford Street bus station. For some reason British/RUC elements did not act upon these warnings which have been verified by the Public Protection Agency. 30 Minutes warning had been given for the first and upto 73 Minutes for the last bomb.

  
  
• 1974
  

  Guildford pub bombing killed 19 and injured 182. Four people, dubbed the Guildford Four, were convicted for this and were imprisoned with life sentences. 15 years later Lord Lane of the Court of Appeal overturned their convictions noting "the [investigating] officers must have lied".
  

• 1974
  

  Guildford pub bombing killed 19 and injured 182. Four people, dubbed the Guildford Four, were convicted for this and were imprisoned with life sentences. 15 years later Lord Lane of the Court of Appeal overturned their convictions noting "the [investigating] officers must have lied".

• 1974
  

  Birmingham Pub Bombings. Bombs in two pubs killed 19. The Birmingham Six were tried for this and convicted. Many years later, after new evidence of police fabrication and suppression of evidence, their convictions were quashed. Appeals by the Birmingham Six that the read IRA bombers admit their responsibility were ignored.

• 1975
  Balcombe Street siege
• 1976
  

  The IRA blew up the newly appointed British ambassador to the Republic of Ireland, resulting in a State of Emergency being declared in the Republic. The IRA also threatened to abduct or kill Irish cabinet ministers and the President of Ireland.

• 1979
  

  The IRA blow up Earl Mountbatten of Burma, members of his family and a local child off the Irish coast. An appeal by Pope John Paul II during his Irish visit that their campaign of violence end was ignored.

• 1981
  

  IRA prisoner Bobby Sands, imprisoned in connection with his involvement in a military strike involving a bomb and subsequent gun battle, was elected Member of Parliament in the Northern Ireland constituency of Fermanagh and South Tyrone, after the moderate nationalist Social Democratic and Labour Party decided not to run a candidate, leaving Sands as the main nationalist candidate in the by-election. He had been on a hunger strike for 'Prisoner of War' status for 41 days prior to being elected. He died 23 days later, with over 110,000 people attending the funeral.

• 1981
  

  The IRA killed Ulster Unionist Party Belfast MP Rev Robert Bradford along with the caretaker of a community centre. Irish Taoiseach Dr. Garret FitzGerald and former taoiseach Charles Haughey condemned the killings in Dail Éireann. SDLP party leader John Hume accused the Provisional IRA of waging a campaign of "sectarian genocide". Infact the IRA targetted the UUP MP for those exact reasons as stated in AP/RN 19 Nov 1981 by an IRA spokesman; "A Ultra-reactionary loyalist who was vitriolic in his sectarian and racist outbursts against nationalists, and while they do not personally pull the trigger they provide the ideological framework for the UDA and UVF who do the murdering."

• 1982
  

  Hyde Park. 2 bombs killed 8 members of the Household Cavalry and Royal Green jackets units performing ceremonial duties in one of the few mainland attacks which targeted soldiers. 7 of their horses were also killed.

• 1983
  

  Harrods department store bombed leading upto Christmas shopping killed 6 (3 police) and wounded 90.

• 1984
  

  Brighton hotel bombing: a bomb in the Grand Hotel killed 5 in a failed attempt to kill members of the British cabinet, including Margaret Thatcher, the Prime Minister.

• 1987
  

  Enniskillen. Bombing of a Remembrance Day parade killed 11 civilians (including nurse Marie Wilson, whose father Gordon Wilson went on to become a leading campaigner for an end to violence in Northern Ireland) and injured 63. The IRA later stated that their target was a colour guard of British soldiers, and that the timer had gone off prematurely. On Remembrance Day 1997, the leader of Sinn Féin, Gerry Adams, formally apologised for the bombing.

• 1989
  

  10 Royal Marines bandsmen were killed and 22 injured in a bombing of their base in Deal, Kent.

• 1990
  

  Car bombings in Northern Ireland killed 7 and wounded 37.

• 1991
  

  2 IRA members were killed by their own bomb in St Albans.

• 1992
  

  8 Protestant builders killed by an IRA bomb on their way to work at an Army base near Omagh.

• 1993
  

  IRA bomb in Warrington killed 2 children.

• 1993
  

  IRA detonated a huge truck bomb in the City of London at Bishopsgate, which killed 2 and caused approximately £350m of damage, including the near destruction of St. Ethelburga's Bishopsgate.

• 1993
  

  A bomb at a fish and chip shop underneath a UDA office on the Protestant Shankill Road, Belfast went off prematurely and killed 10 people, including 2 children and the bomber.

• 1996
  

  After constant British/Unionist problems, the IRA broke the ceasefire, and in just over an hour a bomb at Canary Wharf was detonated. 15 June 1996 Manchester bombing by IRA was a 5,000lb bomb which injured 206 people and damaged 70,000 square meters of retail and office space.

Infiltration

There have been persistent rumours that the Provisional IRA had been infiltrated by British Intelligence agents, and that senior IRA members were informers.

In May 2003 a number of newspapers named Freddie Scappaticci as the alleged identity of the British Force Research Unit's most senior informer within the Provisional IRA, code-named Stakeknife, who is thought to have been head of the Provisional IRA's internal security force, charged with routing out informers like himself. Scappaticci denies that this is the case and is taking legal action to clear his name.

We intend to continue to progress our war effort regardless of how British rule in the six occupied counties is remodeled.This progression shall continue until such times as there is a British declaration of intent to withdraw!

The Continuity Irish Republican Army (CIRA)
Which also styles itself the Continuity Army Council and Óglaigh na hÉireann'''"--Gaelic for 'Volunteers of Ireland', and a title also claimed by both the legal Defence Forces of the Republic of Ireland and the Provisional IRA, is an Irish republican paramilitary group that split from the Provisional Irish Republican Army in 1986 in a dispute over the attendance of the elected representatives of Sinn Fein (the political party affiliated to the Provisional IRA) at Dail Eireann (the lower house of parliament of the Republic of Ireland).

At the 1986 Sinn Fein Ard Fheis (annual party conference) it was decided to discontinue the party's long held policy of abstention from the Dail but this decision was rejected by a minority of members who walked out of the conference to form a new political party--Republican Sinn Fein--and a new paramilitary group: the CIRA. The dispute within Sinn Fein was also seen as one between the Northern Ireland leadership of the party under Gerry Adams, who remained within 'Provisional' Sinn Fein, and the party's southern leadership under Ruairi O Bradaigh, who was among the defectors.

Contrary to commmon belief, the formation of the CIRA did not arise from the signing of the 1998 Good Friday (Belfast) Agreement and predated that of the 'Real' IRA. The group opposes the Agreement nonetheless and, as of 2004, unlike the Provisional IRA, the CIRA had not announced a cease fire or agreed to participate in weapons decommissioning.

The CIRA claim to be the true inheritors of an Irish republican tradition that includes the 'Old' Irish Republican Army that fought the 1919-1921 War of Independence, and claims to have attained legitimacy as such in being recognised by Tom Maguire, the last surviving member of the Second Dail, as the modern incarnation of the old IRA, in what CIRA supporters perceive to be a kind of 'apostolic' succession. These claims are not widely accepted among republicans however.

Activities
As of 2004, CIRA activities had included numerous bombings, assassinations and kidnappings, as well as extortion and robbery. Targets of the CIRA have included British military and Northern Ireland security targets, as well as loyalist paramilitary groups. It has also conducted bomb attacks on predominantly Protestant towns in Northern Ireland. The CIRA is not believed to have an established presence or capability of launching attacks on the island of Great Britain.

Strength
As of 2004, the US government believed the CIRA to consist of fewer than 50 fully active members.

External Aid
The US government suspected the CIRA of receiving funds and arms from supporters in the United States. It is also believed that, in cooperation with the 'Real' IRA, the CIRA may have acquired arms and materiel from the Balkans.

Synonyms: Irish Continuity Army Council (ICAC); Continuity Army Council (CAC)

Continuity Irish Republican Army
(Óglaigh na hÉireann) was reorganised as a result of the Provisionals abandonment of the abstentionist policy from Leinster House at the Sinn Féin Ard Fheis in 1986. Ruairi Ó Bradaigh, Daithi Ó Conaill and others walked out of that Ard Fheis and reconvened as Republican Sinn Féin. Provisional Sinn Féin had decided to sit in Leinster House if elected, whereas Republican Sinn Féin remained true to basic Republican principle. It was not as a result of the signing of the Belfast Agreement (variously known as the "Good Friday" Agreement or Stormont Agreement) although it does not support the current process, and the Army carries on the military campaign against British rule in Ireland. Furthermore the Continuity IRA has nothing to do with the so-called "Real" IRA, as it was in existence many years before it.

The IRA has not called a ceasefire nor has it decommissioned any of its weapons. Tommy Crossan, CIRA POW in Magilligan Prison, is leading the campaign for the reinstatement of political status removed by the signing of the Stormont Agreement. Comdt-Gen Tom Maguire, IRA - the last surviving member of the 2nd (All-Ireland) Dail Eireann released a statement recognising the Continuity Executive and the Continuity Army Council as the lawful Executive and Army Council respectively of the Irish Republican Army, and therefore possessing the governmental authority delegated by the faithful deputies of Dail Eireann in 1938. The CIRA are believed to be the only Republican group in Ireland never to have killed or seriously injured civilians.

           The Real IRA is a hard-line splinter group that broke away from the Irish Republican Army (IRA) in November 1997 on the background of the Northern Ireland Peace Process. The founding members of the RIRA objected to the cease-fire called by the IRA in 1997, choosing instead to continue the armed struggle. While the Provisional IRA, allied with the Sinn Fein Party, supported--and indeed helped to achieve--the peace settlement, the dissident republican groups declared that they would accept nothing less than the union of Northern Ireland with the British-controlled Irish Republic. The group’s stated objective is the disruption of the peace process, leading to a complete British withdrawal from North Ireland.

The IRA dissidents who resigned from the mainstream republican movement eventually regrouped in order to set up a new organization, the “Real” IRA. The group includes a number of the IRA's 12-strong “army executive,” who resigned, along with quartermaster-general McKevitt in protest of the official IRA support for the peace process. The dissidents formed a new “army executive,” which was to elect an army council to run the new organization.

It is strongly suspected that the Real IRA is the military wing of the 32 County Sovereignty Committee, lead in part by Bernadette Sands McKevitt, who serves as acting vice president. The Committee, established in December of 1997, strives for the full independence of 26 counties in the Irish Republic and the six counties of Nothern Ireland. Most of the support for the RIRA is thought to be in the Dundalk and Newry area with some support in Dublin.

The group is small in number and has suffered heavy setbacks at the hands of the Irish police. The RIRA recruited up to 30 experienced operators from ranks of the PIRA, mainly in the Republic but also in some areas in North Ireland. In addition, it embarked on a clandestine campaign to enroll younger recruits previously uninvolved in paramilitary activity. Estimates of total membership have varied from about 70 to 175. Some analysts think the most likely figure is about 100.

Song Being Played , Éire Óg - MERRY PLOUGH BHOY, CROSSMAGLEN, TIOCFAIDH ÁR LÁ (not full song )