The Violent Struggles of Northern Ireland: History of the IRA and Sinn Fein (1998)

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The Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA or PIRA) was an Irish republican paramilitary organisation that sought to remove Northern Ireland from the United Kingdom and bring about an independent republic encompassing all of Ireland. It emerged in December 1969—after the beginning of the Troubles—when the Irish Republican Army split over ideology and how to respond to attacks on Catholics in Northern Ireland. Catholic demands for civil rights had been met with violence from Ulster loyalists and from the government of Northern Ireland, culminating in the August 1969 riots and deployment of British troops. The Provisional IRA was the biggest and most active republican paramilitary during the Troubles. It saw itself as the only rightful successor to the original IRA and called itself simply the Irish Republican Army (IRA), or Óglaigh na hÉireann in Irish. It was also widely referred to as such by others. The IRA is a proscribed organisation in the UK under the Terrorism Act 2000 and an unlawful organisation in the Republic of Ireland. The United States includes them in the category of "other selected terrorist groups also deemed of relevance in the global war on terrorism." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Provisional_Irish_Republican_Army Sinn Féin (/ʃɪn ˈfeɪn/ shin-FAYN)[2] is an Irish republican political party active in both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. The name is Irish for "ourselves" or "we ourselves",[3][4] although it is frequently mistranslated as "ourselves alone".[5] Originating in the Sinn Féin organisation founded in 1905 by Arthur Griffith, it took its current form in 1970 after a split within the party (the other party is the Workers' Party of Ireland), and has been associated with the Provisional Irish Republican Army.[6] Gerry Adams has been party president since 1983. Sinn Féin is currently the second-largest party in the Northern Ireland Assembly, where it has four ministerial posts in the power-sharing Northern Ireland Executive, and the fourth-largest party in the Oireachtas, the parliament of the Republic. Sinn Féin also received a plurality of Northern Ireland votes in the 2010 United Kingdom general election, although the Democratic Unionist Party won more seats. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinn_fein The Remembrance Day bombing (also known as the Enniskillen bombing or Poppy Day massacre) took place on 8 November 1987 in Enniskillen, County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. A Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) bomb exploded near the town's war memorial (cenotaph) during a Remembrance Sunday ceremony, which was being held to commemorate British military war dead. Eleven people (ten civilians and a police officer) were killed and 63 were injured. The IRA said it had made a mistake and that its target had been the British soldiers parading to the memorial. The unit who carried out the bombing was disbanded. The bombing was strongly condemned by all sides and weakened the IRA's and Sinn Féin's support. It also facilitated the passing of the Extradition Act, which made it easier to extradite IRA suspects from the Republic of Ireland to the UK. Loyalist paramilitaries responded to the bombing with 'revenge' attacks on Catholic civilians. The bombing has been described as a turning point in the Troubles and an incident that shook the IRA "to its core". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enniskillen_bombing The Harrods bombing usually refers to the car bomb that exploded outside Harrods department store in central London on Saturday 17 December 1983. Members of the Provisional IRA planted the time bomb and sent a warning 37 minutes before it exploded, but the area was not evacuated. The blast killed three police officers and three civilians, injured 90 people, and caused much damage. The IRA Army Council claimed it had not authorised the attack and expressed regret for the civilian casualties. The IRA had been bombing commercial targets in England since the early 1970s, as part of its "economic war". The goal was to damage the economy and cause disruption, which would put pressure on the British government to withdraw from Northern Ireland. Harrods was the target of a much smaller IRA bomb almost ten years later, in January 1993, which injured four people. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harrods_bombing