Irish Republican Army Research Paper

For well over a century, there has been political turmoil throughout the Irish isle stemming from the British occupation of Northern Ireland. With this occupation goes a tradition of armed resistance to the British military and other political installations. This tradition generally only found effective expression when large sections of the Irish people, faced with the British government's denial of the legitimate demand for Irish independence, exercised the right to use armed struggle (Coogan 10). The Irish Republican Army (IRA) was formed after the Easter Rising of 1916, which was the first major uprising in Irish history. Their goal was to remove the British from the Irish isle and unite Ireland once and for all under home rule. Although many may consider the IRA to be nothing more than a terrorist faction that has had no political strength and puts its own best interests first, it is clear that their actions have influenced Irish and British politics and that, even through violence, they keep the best interests of their people at heart. To this day, however, the British maintain that their influence is needed in the north and have yet to show any signs of
Among the Chiefs of Staff of the IRA in the 1930s was Sean MacBride, later a distinguished international human rights lawyer and winner of the Nobel and Lenin Peace Prizes. In 1939 the IRA began a bombing campaign in English cities. This was effectively over by 1941, with relatively few attacks having occurred. Again, this campaign was unsuccessful because the organization itself was beginning to divide; some started to feel that the organization's policy was too radical. With internment without trial introduced in both the north and south in Ireland, IRA effectiveness was at low during this