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
- published: 30 Sep 2014
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