Irish Republican Army
|skos:definition - en||Updated: March 10, 2009
The Irish Republican Army is a dissident republican group that fought an armed campaign over almost three decades to end British rule in Northern Ireland before renouncing violence. It regards itself as a descendant of the Irish Republican Army that fought in the Irish War of Independence in the early twentieth century.
In the 1960s, even as the activities of the old I.R.A. had dwindled, civil rights activists protested against anti-catholic discrimination in British-ruled Northern Ireland. The Royal Ulster Constabulary, the province's police force, responded aggressively and the government in London deployed the army to restore order. In 1969 the I.R.A., unsure how to respond to the escalating violence, fractured into two groups. The Marxist, Dublin-based Official IRA advocated peaceful pursuit of a united Ireland, while the Provisional I.R.A. sought the same objective through violent means.|
|skos:prefLabel - en||Irish Republican Army|