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Mikhas Klimkovich

2025-10-22T19:19:44Z

2A02:8012:227B:0:4C4:1152:824F:C6C4: - Category:People of the Russian Civil War + Category:Soviet military personnel of the Russian Civil War

{{Short description|Belarusian poet (1899–1954)}}
{{Expand Belarusian (Taraškievica orthography)|Міхась Клімковіч|date=April 2024}}
{{Infobox writer
| name = {{lang|be-latn|Michaś Mikałajevič Klimkovič|italic=no}}
| image = Mikhas Klimkovich.jpg
| native_name = {{lang|be|Міхась Клімковіч}} {{lang|ru|Михаил Климкович}}
| birth_name = {{lang|be|Міхаіл Мікалаевіч Клімковіч}}
| birth_date = {{birth date|1899|11|20|df=y}}
| death_date = {{death date and age|1954|11|05|1899|11|20|df=y}}
| occupation = [[Writer]], [[poet]], [[Libretto|librettist]]
| notable_works = [[Anthem of the Byelorussian SSR|State Anthem of the Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic]] "[[My Belarusy]]" {{small|(co-author)}}
| birth_place = {{ill|Salitranka|be}}, [[Minsk Governorate]], [[Russian Empire]]
}}
'''Michaś Mikałajevič Klimkovič'''{{efn|{{langx|be|Міхась Мікалаевіч Клімковіч}}; {{langx|ru|Михаил Николаевич Климкович|Mikhail Nikolayevich Klimkovich}}}} (20 November 1899 – 5 November 1954) was a [[Belarus]]ian poet, librettist and author. He wrote the lyrics to the [[Anthem of the Byelorussian SSR|State Anthem of the Belarusian SSR]], and co-wrote the lyrics to the current [[My Belarusy|State Anthem of the Republic of Belarus]].<ref>{{Cite web|date=2015-10-24|title=Почему создание и утверждение Государственного гимна БССР растянулось на 11 лет|url=https://news.tut.by/culture/469970.html|access-date=2020-12-06|website=TUT.BY|language=ru|archive-date=2019-07-26|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190726175624/https://news.tut.by/culture/469970.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>

==Biography==
Klimkovich was born into the family of a stoker in the village of Salitranka on 20 November 1899. Finishing a four-year pedagogical institute, he was involved in teaching, subsequently joined the revolutionary communist forces during the collapse of the [[Russian Empire]], fighting in the [[Red Army]] during the [[Russian Civil War]]. He became a member of the [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union|Russian Communist Party (b)]] in 1920. Between 1932 and 1937 he was a member of the organizinatinal committee in charge of the education activities of the Belarusian Writers' Union before being elected as the Belarusian Writers' Union's first-ever chairman in 1934.<ref>{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=|title=Mikhas Klimkovich // Belarusian Writers (1917—1990): Handbook; Composition. AK Gorditsky. Nav. ed. A. L. Sparrow. - Мн .: Мастацкая літаратура, 1994. - 653 с .: іл|url=http://www.slounik.org/81091.html|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=|website=}}</ref>

Aside from a number of important poems, Klimkovich authored the dramatic trilogy ''Georgy Skaryna'' and wrote librettos for several operas and a ballet.

== Notes ==
{{notelist}}

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Klimkovich, Mikhas}}
[[Category:1899 births]]
[[Category:1954 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Barysaw district]]
[[Category:Communist Party of the Soviet Union members]]
[[Category:Soviet military personnel of the Russian Civil War]]
[[Category:20th-century Belarusian poets]]
[[Category:Belarusian male poets]]
[[Category:Soviet poets]]
[[Category:Soviet male writers]]
[[Category:National anthem writers]]

{{belarus-poet-stub}}

Arkady Gaidar

2025-10-22T19:14:28Z

2A02:8012:227B:0:4C4:1152:824F:C6C4: - Category:People of the Russian Civil War + Category:Soviet military personnel of the Russian Civil War

{{Short description|Soviet children's writer (1904–1941)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2014}}
{{Family name hatnote|Petrovich|Gaidar|lang=Eastern Slavic}}
[[File:Гайдар, Аркадий Петрович 001.png|thumb]]
'''Arkady Petrovich''' '''Gaidar''' ({{langx|ru|link=no|Арка́дий Петро́вич Гайда́р}}, born '''Golikov''', {{langx|ru|link=no|Го́ликов}}; {{OldStyleDate|22 January|1904|9 January}}<ref>There are conflicting evidences as to the date of Gaidar's birth. In a diary he cited it as 9 February 1904 (old style), according to his sister Natalya's memoirs it was 9 January.</ref> – 26 October 1941) was a [[Russian literature|Russian Soviet writer]], whose stories were very popular among Soviet children, and a [[Red Army]] commander.<ref name="vol_4">Arkady Gaidar. Biography. Timeline. Works by Arkady Gaidar in 4 volumes. [[Detskaya Literatura]]. Moscow, 1964. Vol. 4. Pp 261–272.</ref>

==Biography==
Gaidar was born in the town of [[Lgov, Kursk Oblast|Lgov]], [[Kursk Governorate]], [[Russian Empire]] (now in [[Kursk Oblast]], [[Russia]]), to a family of teachers of Russian aristocratic descent.<ref name="vol_4"/> Through his noble mother, he was a distant relative of [[Mikhail Lermontov]], whose 2nd great-grandfather was also Gaidar's mother's direct ancestor. In 1912, the family moved to [[Arzamas]] where in 1914 Arkady enrolled in a local secondary school. In 1917, as an ardent 13-year-old [[Bolshevik]] follower, Gaidar started to distribute leaflets and patrol the streets. During one such mission, he received his first wound, a stab in the chest.<ref>Kassil, Lev. Biography. Works by Arkady Gaidar in 4 volumes. Detskaya Literatura Publishers. Moscow, 1964. Vol. 1. Pp. 38.</ref>

In 1918, Golikov applied for Communist Party membership and started working for the local newspaper Molot as a correspondent. In August 1918, he became a party member and in December volunteered for the [[Red Army]], having lied about his age. In January 1919, Golikov went to the front as a Special Unit commander's adjutant, to fight what Soviet biographies referred to as the '[[kulak]] gangs'.<ref name="vol_4"/><ref>Gribanov, Vladimir. "Аркадий Гайдар: романтика прицельного выстрела" ("Arkady Gaidar: Romance of an Aimed Shot"). ''Аргументы и факты'' (''[[Argumenty i Fakty]]''). 22 October 2002. ''Argumenty i Fakty''. Retrieved 26 February 2009. http://gazeta.aif.ru/online/tv/119/tg15_01 {{in lang|ru}}</ref>

Fresh from the 7th Moscow Red Commanders' courses, Gaidar went to the Ukrainian (later Polish) front as a [[Company (military unit)|company]] commander. In December 1919, injured and shell-shocked, he was demobilised, but in March 1920 returned to the Red Army, to the Caucasian Front's 9th Army, 37th Kuban Division, as a company commander again. In summer 1920, Gaidar took part in operations against the units of generals Geyman and Zhitikov.<ref name="b">{{cite web|url=http://www.gaydar.net.ua/bio.php |title=Arkady Gaidar |publisher=www.gaydar.net.ua |accessdate=2014-01-13 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20131023111834/http://gaydar.net.ua/bio.php |archivedate=23 October 2013 }}</ref>

In 1921, Gaidar participated in the suppression of several anti-communist uprisings, among them [[Antonovshchina]]. In 1922, he was moved to the [[Mongolia]]n border (where the Red Army was fighting White Army units led by colonels Oliferov and Solovyov), but later that year he was hospitalised with traumatic neuroses. He retired from the army in 1924 due to a [[contusion]].<ref name="b"/><ref name="vol_1">Arkady Gaidar. Biography. Timeline. Works by Arkady Gaidar in 4 volumes. Detskaya Literatura Publishers. Moscow, 1964. Vol. 1. Pp. 38.</ref>

As the [[Great Patriotic War]] broke out, Gaidar was sent to the front as a special [[correspondent]] for the newspaper ''[[Komsomolskaya Pravda]]''. In the fall of 1941, Gaidar and other soldiers were surrounded by [[Nazi Germany|German]] troops. He joined the [[Partisan (military)|partisan]]s and became a machine gunner. On 26 October, Gaidar was killed in combat near the village of Lipliave. He was buried in the town of [[Kaniv]].

==Literary work==
In 1925, Gaidar's debut novel ''In the Days of Defeats and Victories'' was published, followed by ''Life For Nothing'' and ''The Mystery of a Mountain'', a sci-fi novel and, most notably, ''[[R.V.S.]]'' (1925) which formed a blueprint for his career as a children's writer, telling stories of front-line camaraderie and the romanticism of the revolutionary struggle.<ref name="b"/> In 1927, Gaidar moved to Moscow. A year later, he went to [[Arkhangelsk]] to work for a local newspaper, ''Pravda Severa''. Back in Moscow, in 1930, he published the novel ''School'' (originally titled "The Plain Biography"). In the early 1930s, several articles on Gaidar's works appeared in the Soviet press, [[Konstantin Fedin]] being his major supporter and mentor. In 1939, Gaidar was awarded the [[Order of the Badge of Honour]].<ref name="vol_4"/> Short stories "The Military Secret" (1935), "[[The Blue Cup]]" (1936) and the novel ''Blue Stars'' (1939) were followed by his most famous work, ''[[Timur and His Squad]]'' (1940), its hero named after, and partially based on the character of, the author's son. A captivating account of an [[altruist]]ic [[Pioneer Movement|pioneer]] youth gave birth to the mass [[Timur movement]] among [[Young Pioneers (Soviet Union)|Young Pioneers]] and other children's organisations all over the [[Soviet Union]].<ref name="b"/>

A number of films were made based on his stories. Gaidar's books have been translated into many languages.

===Novels===
*''In the Days of Defeats and Victories'' ([[:ru:В дни поражений и побед]]), short version: 1925, full: 1926
*''[[R.V.S.]]'' ({{lang|ru|РВС}}) (the Russian abbreviation refers to "[[Revolutionary Military Council]]"), 1925
*''Life for Nothing'' ([[:ru:Жизнь ни во что]]), 1926
*''Forest Brothers'' ([[:ru:Лесные братья (повесть)|Лесные братья]]), 1927
*''School'' ({{lang|ru|Школа}}), 1930
*''[[Distant Lands|Distant Countries]]'' ({{lang|ru|Дальние страны}}), 1932
*''Military Secret'' ([[:ru:Военная тайна (повесть)|Военная тайна]]), 1935
**The novel incorporates as a [[story within a story]] the earlier published fantasy tale (''[[skazka]]'') ''A tale about a war secret, about the boy Nipper-Pipper, and his word of honour'' ([[:ru:Сказка о Военной тайне, о Мальчише-Кибальчише и его твёрдом слове]], 1933), where Nipper-Pipper (Malchish-Kibalchish) has become a signature literary child hero in the Soviet Union.<ref>[https://dic.academic.ru/dic.nsf/litheroes/312 "МАЛЬЧИШ-КИБАЛЬЧИШ"]</ref>
*"[[The Blue Cup]]" ([[:ru:Голубая чашка]]), 1936
**Moscow: Raduga Publishers, 1988. {{ISBN|5-05-002177-4}}
*''[[The Drummer's Fate]]'' ({{lang|ru|Судьба барабанщика}}), 1939
* ''Blue Stars'' (1939)
*"[[Smoke in the Forest]]" (Дым в лесу), 1939
*''[[Chuk and Gek]]'' ({{lang|ru|Чук и Гек}}), 1939
*''[[Timur and His Squad]]'' ({{lang|ru|Тимур и его команда}}), 1940

===English translations===

*''[[Timur and his Gang]]'', Charles Scribner's Sons, NY, 1943.
*''School and Other Stories'', Progress Publishers, Moscow, 1967.
*''[[The Blue Cup]]'', Progress Publishers, Moscow, 1981.
*''Selected Stories'', Raduga Publishers, Moscow, 1986.
*''The Drummer Boy and Two Other Stories'', [[Hutchinson (publisher)|Hutchinson's]] Books for Young People, London, 1947.<ref>[https://www.jstor.org/stable/4203961 Books and Pamphlets on Russia, 1947, The Slavonic and East European Review, Vol. 26, No. 67]</ref>
*''[[Chuk and Gek]]'', Progress Publishers, Moscow, 1973.

==Recognition and remembrance==
Gaidar was awarded two [[Order (decoration)|order]]s and several medals.<ref name="vol_4"/><ref name="b"/>
[[File:Stamp Ag2.JPG|thumb|Arkady Gaidar on a Soviet stamp]]
A monument honouring him was erected in Kaniv in 1953.
[[File:Памятник А. П. Гайдару.jpg|thumb|Monument to Gaidar in Svetlograd]]
Three biographical movies about Arkady Gaidar were released in the [[Soviet Union|USSR]]: ''Serebryanye truby'' (Russian: ''Silver Trumpets'') (1970), ''Konets imperatora taygi'' (Russian: ''The Death of the Taiga Emperor'') (1978), and ''Ostayus s vami'' (Russian: ''I'll Stay with You'') (1981). The latter was a story of Arkady Gaidar's last days.

==Pseudonym==
Arkady's son, [[Timur Gaidar]] published two versions of the pseudonym's origin:<ref>[http://www.lib.ru/GOLIKOW/golikov.txt "Голиков Аркадий из Арзамаса"], by Timur Gaidar</ref>
#This an abbreviation of French "'''G'''olikov '''A'''rkad'''y''' '''d''' ' '''Ar'''samas", which means "Golikov, Arkady from [[Arzamas]]".
# Arkady took the name Gaidar from a [[Khakas language]] word meaning ''going first'', ''the leader''. Another version is that the name comes from the Khakas word for "Where is?" which is the question Gaidar would shout as he and his unit went from village to village in the Yenisei River region tracking down (and eventually killing) the Cossack hetman he was pursuing during the Civil War.

==Family==
Arkady Gaidar's father, Pyotr Isidorovich Golikov, a teacher (after the 1917 Revolution a Red Army [[commissar]]), came from a working-class family. His mother, Natalya Arkadyevna Golikova (née Salkova), also a teacher (after the Revolution a doctor), was a daughter of a Tsarist Army officer. Arkady was the first of the couple's four children. His three sisters were Natalya, Olga and Yekaterina.<ref name="vol_4"/>

The Russian economist [[Yegor Gaidar]] was Arkady Gaidar's grandson. Yegor Gaidar's father, Rear Admiral [[Timur Gaidar]], was his son.<ref>{{cite book|author=Petr Aven, Alfred Kokh|title=Gaidar's Revolution: The Inside Account of the Economic Transformation of Russia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-mIpDAAAQBAJ&q=Gaidar+Golikov&pg=PT522|year=2015|publisher=I.B.Tauris|isbn=978-0-857-73958-2}}</ref>

[[Maria Gaidar]] (born 1982), Russian activist, is a daughter of Yegor Gaidar.

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
*{{IMDb name|0301469}}
* [http://www.sovlit.net/bios/gaidar.html Gaidar, Arkady Petrovich] at SovLit.net – Encyclopedia of Soviet Authors

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gaidar, Arkady}}
[[Category:1904 births]]
[[Category:1941 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Lgov, Kursk Oblast]]
[[Category:People from Lgovsky Uyezd]]
[[Category:Russian communists]]
[[Category:Bolsheviks]]
[[Category:Soviet military personnel of the Russian Civil War]]
[[Category:Russian children's writers]]
[[Category:Soviet male writers]]
[[Category:Soviet short story writers]]
[[Category:Soviet novelists]]
[[Category:Soviet children's writers]]
[[Category:Russian people of World War II]]
[[Category:Soviet war correspondents]]
[[Category:Soviet partisans]]
[[Category:Soviet people of World War II]]
[[Category:Soviet military personnel killed in World War II]]

Grigory Semyonov (general)

2025-10-22T16:44:01Z

2A02:8012:227B:0:4C4:1152:824F:C6C4: Removed Category:People of the Russian Civil War as already in more specific Category:White movement lieutenant generals and others

{{Short description|Russian general (1890–1946)}}
{{multiple issues|
{{expand Russian|topic=bio|date=March 2024}}
{{expand Spanish|topic=bio|date=June 2025}}
}}
{{Infobox military person
| name = Grigory Semyonov
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1890|9|25}}
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1946|8|30|1890|9|25}}
| birth_place = [[Ononsky District|Kuranzha]] Village, Transbaikal Oblast, Russian Empire
| death_place = [[Moscow]], [[Russian SFSR]], [[Soviet Union]] | death_cause= [[Execution by hanging]]
| image = Ataman_semenov.jpg
| caption = Semyonov in 1920
| nickname =
| allegiance = {{flag|Russian Empire|1914}} (1911–1917) {{flag|Russian Republic}} (1917–1921)
| branch = {{flagicon|Russian Empire|1914}} [[Imperial Russian Army]] {{flagicon|Russian Republic}} [[White Movement]]
| serviceyears = 1911–21
| rank = [[Lieutenant General]]
| commands = [[Far Eastern Army]]
| battles = [[World War I]] [[Russian Civil War]]
| awards = [[Order of St. George]] (twice{{clarify|date=December 2018}})
| laterwork =
}}
'''Grigory Mikhaylovich Semyonov''', or '''Semenov''' ({{langx|ru|Григо́рий Миха́йлович Семёнов}}; September 25, 1890 – August 30, 1946), was a [[Japanese Empire|Japanese]]-supported leader of the [[White movement in Transbaikal]] and beyond from December 1917 to November 1920, a [[lieutenant general]], and the ''[[ataman]]'' of [[Baikal Cossacks]] (1919).<ref>Bisher, Jamie, ''White Terror: Cossack Warlords of the Trans-Siberian'', Routledge, London, 2009.</ref> He was the commander of the [[Far Eastern Army]] during the [[Russian Civil War]]. He was also a prominent figure in the [[White Terror (Russia)|White Terror]]. U.S. Army intelligence estimated that he was responsible for executing 30,000 people in one year.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Wilson administration's war on Russian Bolshevism |url=https://peacehistory-usfp.org/ww1-russia/ |access-date=2024-02-11 |website=Peace History |language=en-US}}</ref>

== Early life and career ==
Semyonov was born in the [[Transbaikal]] region of eastern [[Siberia]]. His father, Mikhail Petrovich Semyonov, was Russian; his mother was a [[Buryat people|Buryat]].<ref name="khronos">{{cite web |last1=Kvakin |first1=Andrei.V. |title=Семенов Григорий Михайлович Биографический указатель1890-1946 |url=http://www.hrono.ru/biograf/bio_s/semenov_gm02.php |website=Khronos |access-date=24 October 2022}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Linkhoeva |first=Tatiana |title=Revolution Goes East: Imperial Japan and Soviet Communism |publisher=Cornell University Press |year=2020 |isbn=9781501748103 |pages=47 |language=en}}</ref> Semyonov spoke [[Mongolian language|Mongolian]] and [[Buryat language|Buryat]] fluently. He joined the [[Imperial Russian Army]] in 1908 and graduated from [[Orenburg]] Military School in 1911. Commissioned first as a [[chorąży|khorunzhiy]] (cornet or lieutenant), he rose to the rank of ''[[yesaul]]'' (Cossack captain), distinguished himself in battle against the Germans and the Austro-Hungarians in [[World War I]], and earned the Saint George's Cross for courage.<ref name="Bisher, White Terror">Bisher, ''White Terror''.</ref>

[[Pyotr Wrangel]] wrote:<ref>Always With Honour. By General baron Peter N Wrangel. Robert Speller & Sons. New York. 1957.</ref>
<blockquote>
Semenov was a [[Baikal Cossacks|Transbaikalian Cossack]] – dark and thickset, and of the rather alert Mongolian type. His intelligence was of a specifically Cossack calibre, and he was an exemplary soldier, especially courageous when under the eye of his superior. He knew how to make himself popular with Cossacks and officers alike, but he had his weaknesses in a love of intrigue and indifference to the means by which he achieved his ends. Though capable and ingenious, he had received no education, and his outlook was narrow. I have never been able to understand how he came to play a leading role.
</blockquote>

As somewhat of an outsider among his fellow officers because of his [[ethnicity]], he met another officer shunned by his peers, [[Baron Ungern-Sternberg]], whose eccentric nature and disregard for the rules of etiquette and decorum repelled others. He and Ungern tried to organize a regiment of [[Assyrian Christians]] to aid in the [[Caucasus campaign|Russian fight against the Ottomans]]. In July 1917, Semyonov left the Caucasus and was appointed [[commissar]] of the [[Provisional Government]] in the Baikal region and was responsible for recruiting a regiment of Buryat volunteers.<ref name="Bisher, White Terror"/>

== Russian Civil War in Transbaikal ==
After the [[October Revolution]] of November 1917, Semyonov stirred up a [[Semyonov's Rebellion|sizable anti-Soviet rebellion]] but was defeated after several months of fighting, and he fled to the northeastern Chinese city of [[Harbin]].<ref>{{cite book|title= White Terror: Cossack Warlords of the Trans-Siberian|first= Jamie|last= Bisher |publisher= Routledge|year= 2006|page= 152}}</ref> He then moved to [[Manzhouli]] in Inner Mongolia, where the [[Chinese Eastern Railway]] met the [[Chita Railway]], expelled the Bolshevik garrison guarding the rail junction, and recruited an army, mainly from Buryat and Chinese recruits. In January 1918, he invaded Transbaikal, but by February, had been forced by Bolshevik partisans to retreat back to Manzhouli, where he was visited by R.B.Denny, British Military Attache in Beijing, who formed an "extremely favourable impression of him". On his recommendation, the Foreign Office in London agreed to pay Semyonov £10,000 a month, with no conditions attached,.<ref name="Fleming">{{cite book |last1=Fleming |first1=Peter |title=The Fate of Admiral Kolchak |date=2001 |publisher=Birlinn |location=Edinburgh |isbn=1-84158-138-0 |page=49}}</ref> The French government also decided to give him financial aid, while the Japanese placed an intelligence officer, Captain Kuroki Chikayochi, in Semyonov's headquarters.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Bisher |title=White Terror |pages=60–61}}</ref> The British subsidies ended, by which time "Japanese influence was so strong that Semyonov was for practical purposes a puppet."<ref name="Fleming" />

In April 1918, Semyonov launched another raid into Siberia with the help of the [[Czechoslovak Legion]]. By August 1918 he had managed to consolidate his positions in the Transbaikal region, where he set up a provisional government. On 6 September, his men captured [[Chita, Zabaykalsky Krai|Chita]], and slaughtered 348 of its citizens. He made Chita his capital. Semyonov declared a "Great Mongol State" in 1918 and had designs to unify the Oirat Mongol lands, portions of [[Xinjiang]], Transbaikal, Inner Mongolia, Outer Mongolia, [[Tannu Uriankhai]], Kobdo, [[Hulunbei'er]], and [[Tibet]] into one Mongolian state.<ref>[https://archive.org/details/imperialrivalsch00pain/page/316  Paine 1996], pp. 316-7.</ref>
The region under his control, also called [[Eastern Okraina]], extended from [[Verkhne-Udinsk]] near [[Lake Baikal]] to the [[Shilka River]] and the town of [[Stretensk]], to Manzhouli and northeast some distance along the [[Amur Railway]].<ref name="Bisher, White Terror"/> In early 1919, Semyonov declared himself ''[[ataman]] '' of the [[Transbaikal Cossack Host]].

In his rule over the Transbaikal, Semyonov has been described as a "plain bandit <nowiki>[who]</nowiki> drew his income from holding up trains and forcing payments, no matter what the nature of the load nor for whose benefit it was being shipped".<ref>Norton, Henry Kittredge (1923). "The Far Eastern Republic of Siberia." London: George Allen & Unwin Ltd. p69.</ref> He handed out copies of the ''[[Protocols of the Elders of Zion]]'' to the Japanese troops with whom he became associated.<ref>Tokayer, Marvin (1979). ''The Fugu Plan.'' New York: Paddington Press Ltd. p47.</ref>

[[File:Grigory Mikhaylovich Semyonov 1918.jpg|thumb|Ataman Semyonov with the representatives of the American expedition to the Russian Civil War. Seated: Semyonov (left) and General [[William S. Graves|Graves]] (right)]]
With Japanese protection, he recognised no other authority. When [[Admiral]] [[Aleksandr Kolchak]], who was based in [[Omsk]], in Siberia, was declared Supreme Ruler by the [[White Army|White Armies]], Semyonov refused to submit to him. They had met once, in Manzhouli, in May 1918, when Semyonov insulted Kolchak by failing to be at the railway station to greet him.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Fleming |title=Admiral Kolchak |page=74}}</ref> Kolchak considered sending an army into Transbaikal to remove Semyonov, but had to abandon the idea because Semyonov was protected by the [[Japanese intervention in Siberia|Japanese]], who had 72,000 troops in Siberia. In October 1919, Kolchak recognised Semyonov as commander-in-chief of the Transbaikal region.<ref name="khronos" />

In December 1919, Semyonov sent a detachment to [[Irkutsk]], which had been the last city west of Lake Baikal still nominally under Kolchak's rule until a coalition of [[Mensheviks]] and [[Socialist Revolutionary Party|Socialist Revolutionaries]] seized control. The detachment reached Irkutsk, but did nothing except take 30 men and one young woman hostage. They took their hostages aboard an icebreaker on Lake Baikal, where, on 5 January, they clubbed them to death with a wooden mallet, one by one, and threw them overboard - all except for one man who put up a fight and was thrown alive into the freezing water.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Fleming |title=Admiral Kolchak |pages=194–95}}</ref>

When Kolchak resigned on 4 January 1920 he transferred his military forces in the [[Far East]] to Semyonov. However, Semyonov was unable to keep his troops in Siberia under control: they stole, burned, [[White Terror (Russia)|murdered]], and raped, developing a reputation for being little better than thugs.<ref>Richard Pipes, ''Russia under the Bolshevik Regime'', New York 1994, p.46, and Bisher, ''White Terror''.</ref> In July 1920, the Japanese Expeditionary Corps started a limited withdrawal in accordance with the [[Gongota Agreement of 1920|Gongota Agreement]], which was signed on 15 July 1920 with the [[Far Eastern Republic]] and undermined support for Semyonov. [[Eastern Transbaikalian Front|Transbaikal partisans]], [[Internationalist/Defencist Schism|internationalists]], and the 5th Soviet Army under [[Genrich Eiche]] launched an operation to retake Chita. In October 1920, units of the [[Red Army]] and [[guerrilla warfare|guerrillas]] forced Semyonov's army [[Chita Operations|out of the Baikal region]]. He escaped by plane to Manchuria. In late May 1921 Semyonov travelled to Japan, where he received some support. He returned to the [[Primorsky Krai|Primorye]] in the hope of continuing to fight against the Soviets, but was finally forced to abandon all of Russian territory by September 1921.<ref name="Bisher, White Terror"/>

== In exile ==
He eventually returned to [[China]], where he was given a monthly 1000-[[yen]] pension by the Japanese government. In [[Tianjin]], he made ties with the Japanese [[intelligence (information gathering)|intelligence]] community and mobilized exiled Russian and Cossack communities that planned an eventual overthrow of the Soviets. He was also employed by [[Puyi]], the dethroned Emperor of China, whom he wished to restore to power.<ref>Arnold C. Brackman, ''The Last Emperor''. New York: Scribner's, 1975, p. 151.</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Olga's Story: Three Continents, Two World Wars, and Revolution -- One Woman's Epic Journey Through the Twentieth Century|first=Stephanie|last=Williams|publisher=Doubleday Canada|year=2011|page=327}}</ref>

While he was an exile in China, he was still backed by the Japanese. His influence was such that when [[Anastasy Vonsiatsky]] of the [[Russian Fascist Party]] wanted to visit [[Manchukuo]], the Japanese puppet state in Manchuria, he needed Semyonov's help in getting a visa.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Stephan |first1=John J. |title=The Russian Fascists, Tragedy and Farce in Exile, 1925-1945 |date=1978 |publisher=Hamish Hamilton |location=London |isbn=0-241-10033-X |pages=145–46}}</ref> Vonsiatsky, however, saw Semyonov as a threat to his dream of being Russia's [[Mussolini]], and declared that he should be shot, an outburst that led to the Russian Fascist Party splitting in two.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Stephan |title=The Russian Fascists |pages=164–65}}</ref> [[Konstantin Rodzaevsky]], who supplanted Vonsiatsky as the leader of the Russian Fascists in China co-operated with Semyonov to placate the Japanese.

In 1934, the Japanese formed the [[Bureau for Russian Emigrants in Manchuria]] (BREM; [[:ru:Бюро по делам российских эмигрантов в Маньчжурской империи|Бюро по делам российских эмигрантов в Маньчжурской империи]]), which were nominally under the control of the recent [[Russian Fascist Party]] and provided identification papers necessary to live, work and travel in Manchukuo. Much more in favor with the Japanese than White General [[Vladimir Kislitsin|Kislitsin]], Semyonov replaced him as BREM's chairman from 1943 to 1945.<ref>"''[http://muse.jhu.edu/login?auth=0&type=summary&url=/journals/south_atlantic_quarterly/v099/99.1breuillard.html General V.A. Kislitsin: From Russian Monarchism to the Spirit of Bushido]''," Harbin and Manchuria: Place, Space, and Identity, edited by Thomas Lahusen, special issue of South Atlantic Quarterly, vol. 99, no. 1.</ref>

== Arrest and execution ==
[[File:MGB Semenov.jpg|thumb|Photo of Semyonov after his arrest by Soviet authorities]]
Semyonov was captured in [[Dalian#Post-World War II|Dalian]] by Soviet [[paratroopers]] in September 1945 during the [[Soviet invasion of Manchuria]] in which the Red Army conquered [[Manchukuo]]. He was taken to Moscow, and put on trial with seven others, including Rodzaevsky in front of the [[Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR]]. He pleaded guilty to espionage, sabotage, terrorism, and armed struggle,<ref>{{cite book |last1=Stephan |title=The Russian Fascists |pages=352–53}}</ref> and was sentenced to death by [[hanging]]. Semyonov was executed on August 29, 1946.<ref name="Bisher, White Terror"/>

== References ==
{{Reflist}}
*{{cite book|title=Imperial Rivals: China, Russia, and Their Disputed Frontier|first=S. C. M.|last=Paine|edition=illustrated|year=1996|publisher=M.E. Sharpe|url=https://archive.org/details/imperialrivalsch00pain|url-access=registration|isbn=1563247240|access-date=24 April 2014}}

{{commons}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Semyonov, Grigory}}
[[Category:1890 births]]
[[Category:1946 deaths]]
[[Category:Russian people of Buryat descent]]
[[Category:People from Ononsky District]]
[[Category:People from Transbaikal Oblast]]
[[Category:Russian military personnel of World War I]]
[[Category:White movement lieutenant generals]]
[[Category:Perpetrators of the White Terror (Russia)]]
[[Category:Warlords]]
[[Category:Russian fascists]]
[[Category:History of Zabaykalsky Krai]]
[[Category:Primorsky Krai]]
[[Category:White Russian emigrants to China]]
[[Category:White Russian emigrants to Japan]]
[[Category:People from Manchukuo]]
[[Category:Russian people executed for war crimes]]
[[Category:Executed White movement generals]]
[[Category:Executed White Russian collaborators with Imperial Japan]]
[[Category:Executed mass murderers]]
[[Category:People executed by the Soviet Union by hanging]]

Alexey Kaledin

2025-10-22T15:14:22Z

2A02:8012:227B:0:4C4:1152:824F:C6C4: - Category:People of the Russian Civil War + Category:Don Army personnel

{{Short description|Russian general (1861–1918)}}
{{Infobox military person
| honorific_prefix = [[Ataman]]
| name = Alexey Maksimovich Kaledin
| image = Войсковой Атаман Области Войска Донского, генерал от кавалерии Каледин Алексей Максимович.PNG
| image_size =
| caption = General Alexey Kaledin
| nickname =
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1861|10|24|df=y}}
| birth_place = [[Ust-Khopyorskaya]], [[Saratov Governorate]], [[Russian Empire]]
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1918|2|11|1861|10|24|df=y}}
| death_place = [[Novocherkassk]], [[Russian SFSR]]
| placeofburial =
| allegiance = {{flag|Russian Empire|1914}} {{flag|Don Republic}} ([[White Movement]])
| branch = {{flagicon|Russian Empire|1914}} [[Imperial Russian Army]] {{flagicon|Don Republic}} [[Don Army]] ([[White Movement]])
| serviceyears = 1889–1918
| rank = [[General of the cavalry]]
| unit =
| commands = [[12th Cavalry Division (Russian Empire)|12th Cavalry Division]] and [[8th Army (Russian Empire)|8th Army]] ([[WW1]]) [[Don Army]]
| battles =
{{tree list}}
* [[Russo-Japanese War]]
* [[World War I]]
** [[Brusilov offensive]]
*** [[Battle of Lutsk]]
*** [[Battle of Kostiuchnówka]]
* [[Russian Civil War]]
{{tree list/end}}
}}

'''Alexey Maksimovich Kaledin''' ({{langx|ru|Алексе́й Макси́мович Кале́дин}}; 24 October 1861 – 11 February 1918) was a [[Don Cossack]] [[Cavalry]] [[General]] who commanded the [[12th Cavalry Division (Russian Empire)|12th Cavalry Division]] and [[Russian Eight Army]] during [[World War I]]. He also led the [[Don Cossack]] [[White movement]] in the opening stages of the [[Russian Civil War]].

==Early years==
Kaledin attended the [[Mikhaylovskoye Artillery School]] and the [[General Staff Academy (Imperial Russia)|General Staff Academy]].<ref name="pk">{{cite book |last1=Kenez |first1=Peter |title=Red Attack, White Resistance; Civil War in South Russia 1918 |date=2004 |publisher=New Academia Publishing |location=Washington, DC |isbn=9780974493442 |pages=41–42}}</ref>

==World War I==
Kaledin served as a cavalry commander at the beginning of the war, before taking over command of a cavalry corps, and rising to the rank of General of the Cavalry. He was then assigned command of the [[8th Army (Russian Empire)|8th Army]] on the Southwest Front, participated in the [[Brusilov offensive]],<ref name="pk" /><ref name="rlg">{{cite book |last1=Buttar |first1=Prit |title=Russia's Last Gasp: The Eastern Front 1916-17 |date=2017 |publisher=Osprey Publishing |location=Oxford |isbn=9781472824899 |pages=120, 126}}</ref> and won the [[Battle of Lutsk]].

Kaledin spoke at the [[Moscow State Conference]], stating "all Soviets and committees must be abolished, both in the army and in the rear." Following the [[Kornilov affair]], Kaledin retreated back to [[Novocherkassk]], and protection of the ''voisko'', to avoid arrest by the Provisional Government.<ref name="wc">{{cite book |last1=Chamberlin |first1=William |title=The Russian Revolution, 1917-1921 |date=1935 |publisher=The Macmillan Company |location=New York |pages=204, 220}}</ref><ref name=pk/>

When he was 55 years old, the Cossack ''krug'' had elected Kaledin as their ataman. According to [[Peter Kenez]], Kaledin "...thus became the first democratically chosen leader of the Cosacks since 1723."<ref name=pk/>

==Civil War==
According to Kenez, "On November 9, immediately after receiving news of the [[October Revolution|Petrograd revolution]], and acting in the name of the ''voisko'' government, he invited the members of the Provisional Government to Novocherkassk to join him in organizing the anti-Bolshevik struggle." On 15 November, [[Mikhail Alekseyev]] arrived and started organizing a new army. On 20 November, the ''[[voisko]]'' declared its independence. On 5 December, Kaledin declared martial law when news came of a [[Red Guards (Russia)|Red Guard detachment]] had been sent by the Soviet regime. Between 9 and 15 December, with the aid of the Alekseev Organization, Kaledin was able to suppress Bolshevik resistance in [[Rostov-on-Don]], and then open the third session of the ''krug''. On 19 December, [[Lavr Kornilov]] arrived, and by the end of the month, had reorganized the Alekseev Organization into the Volunteer Army. By January 1918, [[Vladimir Antonov-Ovseenko]] was threatening Rostov and [[Taganrog]] with a force led by Sivers. On 8 February, Sivers had taken control of Taganrog, and Kornilov decided to retreat from the Don.<ref name=pk/>{{rp|57–65,74–75}}

The ensuing loss of [[Rostov-on-the-Don]] and the [[Volunteer Army]]'s retreat during their [[Ice March]] led Kaledin to believe that the whole situation had become hopeless. On 11 February, he resigned from his post and committed suicide by shooting himself.<ref>[http://www.firstworldwar.com/bio/kaledin.htm First World War.com - a multimedia history of world war one]</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Bourne|first=J. M.|title=Who's who in World War One|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bWuwUsDQruYC&pg=PA150|accessdate=June 17, 2009|year=2001|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-0-415-14179-6|page=150}}</ref>

==Honours and awards==
{{unreferenced section|date=February 2021}}
*[[Order of St. Anna]], 3rd class (1897)
*[[Order of Saint Stanislaus]], 2nd class (1902)
*[[Order of St. George]], 4th class for the [[Battle of Gnila Lipa|battle on the river near the village of Hnyla Lypa]], October 12, 1914.
*[[Order of St. George]], 3rd class for the [[Kalush, Ukraine|Battle of Kalush]], September 12, 1915.
*[[Gold Sword for Bravery|Sword of St. George]]

==References==
{{reflist}}
*[http://www.hrono.info/biograf/kaledina.html A biography and other resources] {{in lang|ru}}
*[http://bse.sci-lib.com/article057819.html The Great Soviet Encyclopedia entry for Kaledin] {{in lang|ru}}

==External links==
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Alexey Kaledin}}
* {{Cite EB1922 |last=Golovin |first=Nikolai |authorlink=Nikolai Golovin |wstitle=Kaledin, Alexei |short=x}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kaledin, Alexey}}
[[Category:1861 births]]
[[Category:1918 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Serafimovichsky District]]
[[Category:People from Don Host Oblast]]
[[Category:Don Cossacks]]
[[Category:Don Cossacks noble families]]
[[Category:Atamans]]
[[Category:Imperial Nikolayev Military Academy alumni]]
[[Category:Russian military personnel of World War I]]
[[Category:Russian Constituent Assembly members]]
[[Category:Generals of the Cavalry (Russian Empire)]]
[[Category:Generals of the Cavalry (Russian Provisional Government)]]
[[Category:Generals of the Cavalry (White movement)]]
[[Category:Don Army personnel]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Order of the White Eagle (Russia)]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Order of St. George of the Third Degree]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Order of St. George of the Fourth Degree]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Gold Sword for Bravery]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Order of St. Vladimir, 2nd class]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Order of St. Vladimir, 3rd class]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Order of St. Anna, 1st class]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Order of St. Anna, 3rd class]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Order of Saint Stanislaus (Russian), 1st class]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Order of Saint Stanislaus (Russian), 2nd class]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Order of Saint Stanislaus (Russian), 3rd class]]
[[Category:Russian military personnel who died by suicide]]
[[Category:Suicides by firearm in the Soviet Union]]

Real Irish Republican Army

2025-10-22T13:22:49Z

2A02:8012:227B:0:4C4:1152:824F:C6C4: Category:Real Irish Republican Army is alrerady a top-level subcategory of Category:Irish republican militant groups

{{short description|Irish republican paramilitary group split from the Provisional IRA in 1997}}
{{Use British English|date=August 2020}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2020}}
{{Infobox war faction
| name = Real Irish Republican Army
| native_name = ''[[Óglaigh na hÉireann]]''
| war = {{plainlist|
* [[The Troubles]] (1997–1998)
* [[Dissident Irish republican campaign]] (ongoing)}}
| image =
| native_name_lang = ie
| caption =
| active = 1997–2012
| ideology = {{nowrap|[[Irish republicanism]]}} [[Dissident republicanism]]
| status =
| leader1_title = Leadership
| leader1_name = Army Council
| leaders =
| headquarters =
| area = [[Northern Ireland]] (mainly) [[Republic of Ireland]] [[England]]
| size = 150 (June 2005)
| split_from = {{nowrap|[[Provisional Irish Republican Army]]}}
| merged_into = [[New Irish Republican Army]]
| successor =
| opponents = [[British Army]] {{nowrap|[[Police Service of Northern Ireland]]}} [[Garda Síochána]] [[Defence Forces (Ireland)|Irish Defence Forces]]
}}
{{Irish republicanism|Militant groups}}
The '''Real Irish Republican Army''', or '''Real IRA''' ('''RIRA'''), was a [[Dissident republican|dissident]] [[Irish republican]] [[paramilitary group]] that aimed to bring about a [[United Ireland]]. It was formed in 1997 following a split in the [[Provisional Irish Republican Army|Provisional IRA]] by dissident members, who rejected the IRA's [[ceasefire]] that year. Like the Provisional IRA before it, the Real IRA saw itself as the only rightful successor to the original [[Irish Republican Army (1919–1922)|Irish Republican Army]] and styled itself as simply "the Irish Republican Army" in English or ''[[Óglaigh na hÉireann]]'' in Irish. It was an illegal organisation in the [[Republic of Ireland]] and designated a proscribed terrorist organisation in the United Kingdom and the United States.

The Real IRA [[Timeline of Real Irish Republican Army actions|waged a campaign]] in [[Northern Ireland]] against the [[Police Service of Northern Ireland]]—formerly the [[Royal Ulster Constabulary]]—and the [[British Army]]. It was the largest and most active of the "[[dissident republican]]" paramilitary groups [[Dissident Irish republican campaign|operating against]] the British [[security forces]]. It targeted the security forces in firearm attacks and bombings, and with grenades, [[Barrack buster|mortars]] and [[Rocket-propelled grenade|rockets]].

The Real IRA was also responsible for bombings in Northern Ireland and England with the goal of causing economic harm and disruption, the most notable being the 1998 [[Omagh bombing]], which killed 29 people. After that bombing, the Real IRA went on ceasefire, but resumed operations in 2000. In March 2009 it claimed responsibility for an [[2009 Massereene Barracks shooting|attack on Massereene Barracks]] which killed two British soldiers, the first to be killed in Northern Ireland since 1997. The Real IRA has also been involved in attacks on drug dealers.

In July 2012, it was reported that [[Republican Action Against Drugs]] (RAAD) and other small republican militant groups were merging with the Real IRA. This new entity was named the [[New Irish Republican Army|New IRA]] by the media<ref>{{cite web |last=McDonald |first=Henry |title=Police 'are facing severe terror threat from IRA' |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/may/14/police-severe-terror-threat-ira-northern-ireland-bomb-attacks |work=The Guardian |date=14 May 2016}}</ref> but members continue to identify themselves as simply "the Irish Republican Army".<ref>{{cite web |last=Reilly |first=Gavan |title=Dissident republican groups merge to form 'new IRA' |url=https://www.thejournal.ie/republican-groups-form-new-ira-535041-Jul2012/ |website=TheJournal.ie |date=26 July 2012}}</ref> Small pockets of the Real IRA that did not merge with the New IRA continue to have a presence in the Republic of Ireland, particularly in [[Cork (city)|Cork]] and to a lesser extent in [[Dublin]].<ref name=iexa-apr19>{{cite news |last=O'Keeffe |first=Cormac |title=New IRA 'will be unaffected' by murder on Derry street |url=https://www.irishexaminer.com/breakingnews/views/analysis/new-ira-will-be-unaffected-by-murder-on-derry-street-920365.html |newspaper=[[Irish Examiner]] |access-date=18 December 2019 |date=27 April 2019}}</ref>

==Origins==
In July 1997, the [[Provisional Irish Republican Army|Provisional IRA]] called a ceasefire. On 10 October 1997, a Provisional IRA General Army Convention was held in [[Falcarragh]], County Donegal. At the convention, [[IRA Quartermaster General|Provisional IRA Quartermaster General]] [[Michael McKevitt]]—also a member of the 12-person Provisional IRA Executive—denounced the leadership and called for an end to the group's ceasefire and to its participation in the [[Northern Ireland peace process]]. He was backed by his partner and fellow Executive member [[Bernadette Sands McKevitt]]. The two dissidents were outmanoeuvred by the leadership and were left isolated.<ref name="Harnden">{{cite book |last=Harnden |first=Toby |author-link=Toby Harnden |title=Bandit Country |publisher=[[Hodder & Stoughton]] |year=1999 |pages=429–431 |isbn=0-340-71736-X}}</ref><ref name="English">{{cite book |last=English |first=Richard |author-link=Richard English |title=Armed Struggle: The History of the IRA |publisher=[[Pan Books]] |year=2003 |isbn=0-330-49388-4}}</ref>{{rp|296}} The convention backed the pro-ceasefire line, and on 26 October McKevitt and Sands McKevitt resigned from the Executive along with other members.<ref name="Mooney">{{cite book |last1=Mooney |first1=John |last2=O'Toole |first2=Michael |title=Black Operations: The Secret War Against the Real IRA |publisher=Maverick House |year=2004 |isbn=0-9542945-9-9}}</ref>{{rp|33}}

In November 1997, McKevitt and other dissidents held a meeting in a farmhouse in [[Oldcastle, County Meath]], and a new organisation, styling itself ''Óglaigh na hÉireann'', was formed.<ref name="Mooney" />{{rp|38–39}} The organisation attracted disaffected Provisional IRA members from the republican stronghold of South [[County Armagh|Armagh]], as well as [[Dublin]], [[Belfast]], Limerick, Tipperary, [[County Louth]], County Tyrone and [[County Monaghan]].<ref name="Mooney" />{{rp|47}}<ref name="Janes1">{{cite journal |last=Boyne |first=Sean |date=24 August 1998 |title=The Real IRA: after Omagh, what now? |url=http://www.janes.com/security/international_security/news/jir/jir980824_1_n.shtml |journal=[[Jane's Intelligence Review]] |location=London |publisher=[[Jane's Information Group]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071025035213/http://www.janes.com/security/international_security/news/jir/jir980824_1_n.shtml |archive-date=25 October 2007 |access-date=16 July 2007}}</ref>

The name "Real IRA" entered common usage when in early 1998 members set up a roadblock in [[Jonesborough, County Armagh]], and told motorists "We're from the IRA. The ''real'' IRA".<ref name="Harnden"/>

==Objectives==
The RIRA's objective is a [[united Ireland]] by forcing the end of British sovereignty over [[Northern Ireland]] through the [[Physical force Irish republicanism|use of physical force]]. The organisation rejects the [[Mitchell Principles]] and the [[Good Friday Agreement]], comparing the latter to the 1921 [[Anglo-Irish Treaty]] which resulted in the [[partition of Ireland]].<ref name="RIRA">{{cite web |title='Real' Irish Republican Army (rIRA) Statement |url=http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/othelem/organ/ira/rira280103.htm |publisher=[[Conflict Archive on the Internet|CAIN]] |date=28 January 2003 |access-date=9 May 2007 |archive-date=6 August 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110806160931/http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/othelem/organ/ira/rira280103.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref> The organisation aims to uphold an uncompromising form of [[Irish republicanism]] and opposes any political settlement that falls short of Irish unity and independence.<ref name="English" />{{rp|316–317}}

Bernadette Sands McKevitt, sister of hunger striker [[Bobby Sands]] and a founder of the RIRA's political wing, the [[32 County Sovereignty Movement]], said in an interview that her brother "did not die for cross-border bodies with executive powers. He did not die for nationalists to be equal British citizens within the Northern Ireland state".<ref name="English" />{{rp|316–317}} The RIRA adopted a tactic of bombing town centres to damage the economic infrastructure of Northern Ireland. The organisation also attacks members of the security forces using [[land mine]]s, home-made [[Barrack buster|mortars]] and [[car bomb]]s, and has also targeted England using [[incendiary device]]s and car bombs to "spread terror and disruption".<ref name="Janes1" />

==Campaign==
{{see also|Timeline of Real Irish Republican Army actions}}

===Early campaign===
The organisation's first action was an attempted bombing in [[Banbridge]], County Down on 7 January 1998. The intention was to explode a {{convert|300|lb|adj=on}} [[car bomb]], but this was thwarted when the bomb was defused by security forces.<ref name="Mooney" />{{rp|68–71}}<ref>{{cite news |title=Police detonate car bomb in Ulster |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/45270.stm |work=[[BBC News]] |date=7 January 1998 |access-date=8 May 2007}}</ref> The RIRA continued its campaign in late February with bombings in [[Moira, County Down]] and [[Portadown]], County Armagh.<ref name="Mooney" />{{rp|87}}<ref>{{cite news |title=Eleven injured by Northern Ireland bomb |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/58729.stm |work=BBC News |date=21 February 1998 |access-date=8 May 2007}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Car bomb explodes in Portadown |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/59314.stm |work=BBC News |date=23 February 1998 |access-date=8 May 2007}}</ref> On 9 May the organisation announced its existence, in a coded telephone call to Belfast media claiming responsibility for a [[Mortar (weapon)|mortar]] attack on a police station in [[Belleek, County Fermanagh]].<ref>{{cite news |title='True' IRA claims responsibility for blast |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/events/northern_ireland/latest_news/90405.stm |work=BBC News |date=10 May 1998 |access-date=8 May 2007}}</ref>

The RIRA also carried out attacks in [[Newtownhamilton]] and [[Newry]],<ref>{{cite web |title=Abstracts on Organisations – 'R' |url=http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/othelem/organ/rorgan.htm |publisher=CAIN |access-date=5 May 2007 |archive-date=6 December 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101206180554/http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/othelem/organ/rorgan.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref> and a second attack in Banbridge on 1 August injured 35 people and caused £3.5 million of damage when a {{convert|500|lb|adj=on}} car bomb exploded.<ref>{{cite news |title=Car Bomb Wounds 35 in Ulster Town |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9403E3D71E38F931A3575BC0A96E958260 |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |date=2 August 1998 |access-date=17 June 2007}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Bomb warning in Banbridge |url=http://www.rte.ie/news/1999/0213/banbridge.html |publisher=[[Raidió Teilifís Éireann]] |date=13 February 1999 |access-date=17 June 2007}}</ref> Despite these attacks the organisation lacked a significant base and was heavily infiltrated by informers. This led to a series of high-profile arrests and seizures by the [[Garda Síochána]] in the first half of 1998; these involved the death of RIRA member Rónán Mac Lochlainn who was shot dead trying to escape from police, following an attempted robbery of a [[Armored car (valuables)|security van]] in County Wicklow.<ref name="Mooney" />{{rp|70–71, 101–102, 124–129}}<ref>{{cite news |title=Shot robber 'was republican paramilitary' |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/events/northern_ireland/latest_news/87549.stm |work=BBC News |date=4 May 1998 |access-date=8 May 2007}}</ref>

===Omagh bombing===
{{main|Omagh bombing}}
On 15 August 1998, the RIRA left a car containing 500 lb of home-made explosives in the centre of [[Omagh]], County Tyrone. The bombers could not find a parking space near the intended target of the [[courthouse]], and the car was left 400 metres away.<ref name="Mooney" />{{rp|211–212}}<ref name="cob">{{cite web | title = The Omagh Bomb – Main Events | url = http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/events/omagh/events.htm | publisher = CAIN | access-date = 28 June 2007 | archive-date = 1 October 2011 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20111001132931/http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/events/omagh/events.htm | url-status = dead }}</ref> As a result, three inaccurate telephone warnings were issued, and the [[Royal Ulster Constabulary]] (RUC) believed the bomb was located outside the courthouse. They attempted to establish a security cordon to keep civilians clear of the area, which inadvertently pushed people closer to the location of the bomb.<ref name="Mooney" />{{rp|211–212}} Shortly after, the bomb exploded killing 29 people and injuring 220 others, in what became the single deadliest strike of [[the Troubles]] in Northern Ireland.<ref name="cob"/>

The bombing caused a major outcry throughout the world, and the Irish and British governments introduced new legislation in an attempt to destroy the organisation.<ref name="Mooney" />{{rp|232}}<ref>{{cite news |last=White |first=Michael |author-link=Michael White (journalist) |date=25 August 1998 |title=MPs recalled to match Dublin anti-terror law |url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/1998/aug/25/houseofcommons.uk |newspaper=[[The Guardian]] |access-date=6 May 2007}}</ref> The RIRA also came under pressure from the Provisional IRA, when Provisional IRA members visited the homes of 60 people connected with the RIRA and ordered them to disband and stop interfering with Provisional IRA arms dumps.<ref>{{cite news|last=O'Neill |first=Sean |date=4 May 1998 |title=Give up violence or else, Provos tell the 'Real IRA' |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/htmlContent.jhtml?html=/archive/1998/09/04/nuls104.html |newspaper=[[The Daily Telegraph]] |access-date=8 May 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050316082603/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/htmlContent.jhtml?html=%2Farchive%2F1998%2F09%2F04%2Fnuls104.html |archive-date=16 March 2005 }}</ref> With the organisation under intense pressure, which included McKevitt and Sands-McKevitt being forced from their home after the media named McKevitt in connection with the bombing, the RIRA called a ceasefire on 8 September.<ref>{{cite news |title=Candlelight vigil for bomb victims |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/events/northern_ireland/latest_news/154720.stm |work=BBC News |date=20 August 1998 |access-date=5 May 2007}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=1998: Real IRA announce ceasefire |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/september/8/newsid_2503000/2503633.stm |work=BBC News |date=8 September 1998 |access-date=5 May 2007}}</ref>

===Ceasefire===
Following the declaration of the ceasefire the RIRA began to regroup, and by the end of October had elected a new leadership and were planning their future direction.<ref name="Mooney" />{{rp|257–260}} In late December, Irish government representative [[Martin Mansergh]] held a meeting with McKevitt in Dundalk, in an attempt to convince McKevitt to disband the RIRA. McKevitt refused, stating that members would be left defenceless against attacks by the Provisional IRA.<ref name="Mooney" />{{rp|257–260}} In 1999, the RIRA began preparations for a renewed campaign, and in May three members travelled to [[Split (city)|Split]] in Croatia to purchase arms, which were smuggled back to Ireland.<ref name="Boyne">{{cite book |last=Boyne |first=Sean |title=Gunrunners |publisher=[[O'Brien Press]] |year=2006 |isbn=978-1-84717-014-9}}</ref>{{rp|381–382}} On 20 October, ten people were arrested when [[Garda Síochána|Gardaí]] raided a RIRA training camp near [[Stamullen]], County Meath.<ref>{{cite news |title=Garda chief pledges to halt the Real IRA |author=Tom Brady |url=http://www.independent.ie/national-news/garda-chief-pledges-to-halt-the-real-ira-394558.html |work=Irish Independent |date=22 October 1998 |access-date=15 June 2007}}</ref>

Officers found a firing range inside a disused wine cellar being used as an underground bunker, and seized weapons including an assault rifle, a submachine gun, a semi-automatic pistol and an [[RPG-18]] rocket launcher.<ref name="Mooney" />{{rp|314–315}} An earlier version of the rocket launcher, the [[RPG-7]], had been in the possession of the Provisional IRA from as early as 1972, but this was the first time the RPG-18 had been found in the possession of a paramilitary organisation in Ireland.<ref name="Janes2">{{cite journal |last=Boyne |first=Sean |date=23 August 2000 |title=Real IRA arms purchasing in Croatia indicates a change of tactics |url=http://www.janes.com/security/international_security/news/jtsm/jtsm000823_1_n.shtml |journal=Jane's Terrorism and Security Monitor |location=London |publisher=Jane's Information Group |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060624035820/http://www.janes.com/security/international_security/news/jtsm/jtsm000823_1_n.shtml |archive-date=24 June 2006 |access-date=28 June 2007}}</ref>

===Return to activity===
On 20 January 2000, the RIRA issued a call-to-arms in a statement to the ''[[Irish News]]''. The statement condemned the [[Northern Ireland Executive]], and stated: "Once again, Óglaigh na hÉireann declares the right of the Irish people to the ownership of Ireland. We call on all volunteers loyal to the Irish Republic to unite to uphold the Republic and establish a permanent national parliament representative of all the people."<ref name="Mooney" />{{rp|326}}<ref>{{cite web |title=Real IRA call for unity among all Republicans |url=http://www.rte.ie/news/2000/0120/north.html |publisher=Raidió Teilifís Éireann |date=20 January 2000 |access-date=15 June 2007}}</ref> The RIRA launched its new campaign on 25 February with an attempted bombing of [[Shackleton Barracks|Shackleton Army Barracks]] in [[Ballykelly, County Londonderry|Ballykelly]]. The bombers were disturbed as they were assembling the device, which would have caused mass murder if detonated, according to soldiers.<ref>{{cite news |title=Police quiz man about bombing |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/656770.stm |work=BBC News |date=28 February 2000 |access-date=15 June 2007}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Real IRA behind bid to blow up barracks |author=Tom Brady |url=http://www.independent.ie/national-news/real-ira-behind-bid-to-blow-up-barracks-383691.html |work=The Irish Independent |date=29 February 2000 |access-date=15 June 2007}}</ref>

On 29 February, a rocket launcher similar to one seized in the 1999 raid was found near an army base in [[Dungannon]], County Tyrone,<ref>{{cite news |title=Rocket launcher linked to dissidents |author=Tom Brady |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/661265.stm |work=BBC News |date=29 February 2000 |access-date=15 June 2007}}</ref> and on 15 March three men were arrested following the discovery of 500 lb of home-made explosives when the RUC searched two cars in [[Hillsborough, County Down]].<ref>{{cite news |title=Explosives find linked to Real IRA |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/679353.stm |work=BBC News |date=16 March 2000 |access-date=15 June 2007}}</ref> On 6 April a bomb attack took place at [[Ebrington Barracks]] in Derry. RIRA members lowered a device consisting of 5 lb of homemade explosives over the [[perimeter fence]] using ropes, and the bomb subsequently exploded damaging the fence and an unmanned guardhouse.<ref name="Mooney" />{{rp|335}}<ref>{{cite news |title=Bombing blamed on dissidents |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/703814.stm |work=BBC News |date=6 April 2000 |access-date=15 June 2007}}</ref>

====Bombings in England====
[[File:Real IRA bomb damage in Ealing.jpg|thumb|left|The damage caused by the [[3 August 2001 Ealing bombing]]]]
After the Omagh bombing, the RIRA leadership were unwilling to launch a full-scale campaign in Northern Ireland due to the possibility of civilians being killed.<ref name="Mooney" />{{rp|338}} Instead they decided to launch a series of attacks in England, in particular London, which they hoped would attract disenchanted Provisional IRA members to join the RIRA.<ref name="Mooney" />{{rp|338}} On 1 June 2000, a bomb damaged [[Hammersmith Bridge]], a symbolic target for Irish republican paramilitary groups.<ref>{{cite news |title=Police hunt bridge bombers |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/774216.stm |work=BBC News |date=2 June 2000 |access-date=6 May 2007}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=McDonald |first=Henry |author-link=Henry McDonald (writer) |date=4 June 2000 |title=Real IRA armed with super mortar |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2000/jun/04/northernireland.henrymcdonald2 |work=[[The Guardian]] |access-date=15 June 2007}}</ref> The bridge had been targeted by the [[Irish Republican Army (1922–1969)|Irish Republican Army]] on 29 March 1939 as part of its [[S-Plan|Sabotage Campaign]], and by the Provisional IRA [[1996 Hammersmith Bridge bomb|on 24 April 1996]].<ref>{{cite news|last=Randall |first=Colin |title=Bridge survives as IRA's 30lb bombs fail to explode |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/htmlContent.jhtml?html=/archive/1996/04/26/nbomb26.html |newspaper=The Daily Telegraph |date=26 April 1996 |access-date=15 June 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040826074517/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/htmlContent.jhtml?html=%2Farchive%2F1996%2F04%2F26%2Fnbomb26.html |archive-date=26 August 2004 }}</ref>

On 19 July, security forces carried out a controlled explosion on a bomb left at [[Ealing Broadway station]] and public transport was disrupted when the [[Metropolitan Police]] closed [[London Victoria station|Victoria]] and [[London Paddington station|Paddington]] train stations and halted services on the [[London Underground]].<ref>{{cite news | title = Bomb scares hit capital | url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/840694.stm | work = BBC News | date = 19 July 2000 | access-date = 5 May 2007}}</ref> On [[2000 MI6 attack|21 September]] a [[rocket-propelled grenade]] was fired at the [[SIS Building|MI6 headquarters]] using an [[RPG-22]] rocket launcher, which generated headlines around the world.<ref name="Mooney" />{{rp|349–350}}<ref name="Boyne" />{{rp|84}}<ref>{{cite web |title=Security tight in London in wake of MI6 attack |url=http://www.rte.ie/news/2000/0921/9022-dissidents/ |publisher=Raidió Teilifís Éireann |date=21 September 2000 |access-date=3 May 2007}}</ref> In November 2000, security forces foiled a plot to drive 500 lb of homemade explosives to central London that month, a bomb twice as powerful as the one in Omagh. At the time, police were warning for weeks that a terrorist attack in London could be imminent.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1374106/Real-IRAs-500lb-bomb-for-London-is-thwarted.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220112/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1374106/Real-IRAs-500lb-bomb-for-London-is-thwarted.html |archive-date=12 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|title=Real IRA's 500lb bomb for London is thwarted|first=David|last=Cracknell|date=12 November 2000|work=The Daily Telegraph}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

On 21 February 2001, a bomb disguised as a [[Flashlight|torch]] left outside a [[Territorial Army (United Kingdom)|Territorial Army]] base in [[Shepherd's Bush]] seriously injured a 14-year-old cadet, who was blinded and had his hand blown off.<ref>{{cite news | title = TA blast was deliberate attack | url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/1183106.stm | work = BBC News | date = 22 February 2001 | access-date = 15 June 2007}}</ref><ref>{{cite news | title = BBC bomb prompts terror warning | url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/1201444.stm | work = BBC News | date = 5 March 2001 | access-date = 15 June 2007}}</ref> A second attack in Shepherd's Bush, the [[4 March 2001 BBC bombing|4 March BBC bombing]], injured a civilian outside the [[BBC Television Centre]].<ref>{{cite news | title = Bomb blast outside BBC | url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/1201273.stm | work = BBC News | date = 4 March 2001 | access-date = 3 May 2007}}</ref> The explosion was captured by a BBC cameraman, and the footage was broadcast on TV stations worldwide, and gained mass publicity for the group.<ref>{{cite book | last = Taylor | first = Peter | author-link = Peter Taylor (Journalist) | title = Brits | publisher = Bloomsbury Publishing | year = 2001 | page = [https://archive.org/details/brits00pete/page/384 384] | isbn = 0-7475-5806-X | url-access = registration | url = https://archive.org/details/brits00pete/page/384 }}</ref> On 14 April, a bomb exploded at a postal [[sorting office]] in [[Hendon]], causing minor damage but no injuries.<ref>{{cite news | title = Real IRA linked to post office blast | url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/1278355.stm | work = BBC News | date = 15 April 2001 | access-date = 15 June 2007}}</ref> Three weeks later on 6 May, a second bomb exploded at the same building, causing slight injuries to a passer-by.<ref>{{cite news | title = Election bombing campaign feared | url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/1315452.stm | work = BBC News | date = 6 May 2001 | access-date = 15 June 2007}}</ref> The [[3 August 2001 Ealing bombing]] injured seven people, and on 3 November a car bomb containing 60 lb of home-made explosives was planted in the centre of [[Birmingham]]. The bomb did not fully detonate and no one was injured.<ref>{{cite news | title = New leads in hunt for bombers | url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/1649338.stm | work = BBC News | date = 11 November 2001 | access-date = 3 May 2007}}</ref>

====Renewed campaign in Northern Ireland====
The successful attack on Hammersmith Bridge encouraged the RIRA leadership to launch further attacks in Northern Ireland.<ref name="Mooney" />{{rp|340}} On 19 June 2000 a bomb was found in the grounds of [[Hillsborough Castle]], home of [[Secretary of State for Northern Ireland]] [[Peter Mandelson]].<ref name="Mooney" />{{rp|340}}<ref>{{cite news |title=Mandelson feels 'safe' despite device |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/798309.stm |work=BBC News |date=20 June 2000 |access-date=28 June 2007}}</ref> On 30 June, a bomb exploded on the Dublin-to-Belfast railway line near the village of [[Meigh]] in [[County Armagh]]. The explosion damaged the tracks, and caused disruption to train services.<ref>{{cite news |title=Dissidents linked to railway blast |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/812563.stm |work=BBC News |date=30 June 2000 |access-date=28 June 2007}}</ref> On 9 July a car bomb damaged buildings in [[Stewartstown, County Tyrone]] including an RUC station,<ref name="Mooney" />{{rp|361}}<ref>{{cite news |title=Dissidents linked to NI blast |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/825178.stm |work=BBC News |date=9 July 2000 |access-date=28 June 2007}}</ref> and on 10 August, an attack in Derry was thwarted by the RUC after a van containing a 500 lb bomb failed to stop at a police checkpoint. Following a car chase the bombers escaped across the Irish border, and the [[Irish Army]] carried out a controlled explosion on the bomb after the van was found abandoned in [[County Donegal]].<ref name="Mooney" />{{rp|347–348}}<ref>{{cite news |title=Major NI bomb attack 'thwarted' |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/875812.stm |work=BBC News |date=11 August 2000 |access-date=28 June 2007}}</ref>

On 13 September 2000, two 80 lb bombs were planted at the Magilligan army camp in County Londonderry, one of which was planted in a wooden hut and partially exploded when a soldier opened the door to the hut.<ref name="Mooney" />{{rp|347–348}} The second bomb was found during a follow-up search and made safe by bomb disposal experts.<ref>{{cite news |title=Bombs placed in army base |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/922958.stm |work=BBC News |date=13 September 2000 |access-date=28 June 2007}}</ref> On 11 November the RUC and British Army prevented a mortar attack after stopping a van near [[Derrylin]], County Fermanagh,<ref>{{cite news |title=Mortar find linked to Real IRA |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/1021000.stm |work=BBC News |date=13 November 2000 |access-date=28 June 2007}}</ref> and the RUC prevented a further attack on 13 January 2001 when an 1100 lb bomb was found in [[Armagh]] – the largest bomb found in several years according to the RUC.<ref name="Mooney" />{{rp|374}}<ref>{{cite news |title=Bomb 'largest found' in recent years |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/1122561.stm |work=BBC News |date=17 January 2001 |access-date=28 June 2007}}</ref>

On 23 January, the RIRA attacked Ebrington Army Barracks in Derry for a second time, firing a mortar over a perimeter fence.<ref name="Mooney" />{{rp|375–376}}<ref>{{cite web |title=Dissident Republicans blamed for mortar attack |url=http://www.rte.ie/news/2001/0123/11835-bomb/ |publisher=Raidió Teilifís Éireann |date=23 January 2001 |access-date = 28 June 2007}}</ref> A mortar similar to the one used in the attack was found by Gardaí near [[Newtowncunningham]] on 13 February, and British army bomb disposal experts made safe another mortar found between [[Dungannon]] and [[Carrickmore]] on 12 April.<ref name="Mooney" />{{rp|375–376}}<ref>{{cite news | title = 'Barrack buster' mortar disarmed | url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/1274997.stm | work = BBC News | date = 15 April 2001 | access-date = 28 June 2007}}</ref> On 1 August a 40 lb bomb was discovered in a car at the long-stay car park of [[Belfast International Airport]] following a telephone warning, and was made safe with two controlled explosions by bomb disposal experts.<ref>{{cite news | title = Dissidents blamed for airport bomb | url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/1469573.stm | work = BBC News | date = 2 August 2001 | access-date = 28 June 2007}}</ref> In December a six-day security operation ended when a 70 lb bomb found under railway tracks at Killeen Bridge near Newry was defused. The operation began following telephone warnings, and the road and railway line connecting Newry to Dundalk were closed due to security alerts.<ref>{{cite web | title = Bomb found under rail line | url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/1692599.stm | publisher = BBC | date = 5 December 2001 | access-date = 28 June 2007}}</ref>

A [[pipe bomb]] was discovered at a police officer's home in [[Annalong]], County Down on 3 January 2002,<ref>{{cite web | title = Republicans 'attacked officer's home' | url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/1742240.stm | publisher = BBC | date = 4 January 2002 | access-date = 28 June 2007}}</ref> and two teenage boys were injured in County Armagh on 2 March when a bomb hidden in a [[traffic cone]] exploded.<ref>{{cite web | title = Boys injured in blast | url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/1852162.stm | publisher = BBC | date = 3 March 2002 | access-date = 28 June 2007}}</ref> On 29 March 2002 the RIRA targeted a former member of the [[Royal Irish Regiment (1992)|Royal Irish Regiment]] from [[Sion Mills]], County Tyrone, with a bomb attached to his car that failed to explode.<ref>{{cite news | title = Ex-soldier escapes 'Real IRA' booby trap bomb attack | author = David McKittrick | url = http://www.independent.ie/national-news/exsoldier-escapes-real--ira-booby-trap-bomb--attack-315371.html | newspaper = The Irish Independent | date = 30 March 2002 | access-date = 17 March 2009}}</ref> On 1 August 2002 a civilian worker was killed by an explosion at a Territorial Army base in Derry. The man, a 51-year-old former member of the [[Ulster Defence Regiment]], was the thirtieth person killed by the RIRA.<ref>{{cite web | title = Dissidents blamed for army attack | url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/2166312.stm | publisher = BBC | date = 1 August 2002 | access-date = 28 June 2007}}</ref>

===Arrests===
Despite the RIRA's renewed activity, the organisation was weakened by the arrest of key members and continued infiltration by informers. McKevitt was arrested on 29 March 2001 and charged with membership of an illegal organisation and directing terrorism, and remanded into custody.<ref name="Mooney" />{{rp|378–381}} In July 2001, following the arrests of McKevitt and other RIRA members, British and Irish government sources hinted that the organisation was now in disarray.<ref>{{cite news |author= |title = Real IRA a 'high threat' |url =https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/1426950/Real-IRA-a-high-threat.html |newspaper=The Daily Telegraph |date=8 April 2003 |access-date=3 May 2007}}</ref> Other key figures were jailed, including the RIRA's Director of Operations, [[Liam Campbell]], who was convicted of membership of an illegal organisation,<ref>{{cite news | title = Dissidents dub IRA 'traitors' | author = Shane Harrison | url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/1617836.stm | work = BBC News | date = 24 October 2001 | access-date = 5 May 2007}}</ref> and [[Colm Murphy]] who was convicted of conspiring to cause the Omagh bombing, although this conviction was overturned on appeal.<ref>{{cite news |last=McKittrick |first=David |date=26 January 2002 |title=Omagh bomb plot man is sentenced to 14 years' jail |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/omagh-bomb-plot-man-is-sentenced-to-14-years-jail-9224896.html |newspaper=[[The Independent]] |access-date=17 April 2007}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |author= |title=Omagh bombing convict wins appeal |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/omagh-bombing-convict-wins-appeal-487589.html |newspaper=The Independent |agency=[[Press Association]] |date=21 January 2005 |access-date=17 April 2007}}</ref>

On 10 April 2002, Ruairi Convey, from [[Donaghmede]], Dublin, was jailed for three years for membership of the RIRA. During a search of his home a list of names and home addresses of members of the Gardaí's [[Emergency Response Unit (Garda)|Emergency Response Unit]] was found.<ref>{{cite web|title=Dissident republican jailed for IRA membership |url=http://archives.tcm.ie/breakingnews/2002/04/10/story46042.asp |publisher=BreakingNews.ie |date=10 April 2002 |access-date=3 May 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070604145536/http://archives.tcm.ie/breakingnews/2002/04/10/story46042.asp |archive-date= 4 June 2007 }}</ref> Five RIRA members were also convicted in connection with the 2001 bombing campaign in England, and received sentences varying from 16 years to 22 years' imprisonment.<ref>{{cite web | title = Real IRA bombers jailed | url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/2930957.stm | publisher = BBC | date = 9 April 2003 | access-date = 5 May 2007}}</ref> In October 2002, McKevitt and other RIRA members imprisoned in [[Portlaoise Prison]] issued a statement calling for the organisation to stand down.<ref name="Mooney" />{{rp|410–411}}<ref>{{cite web |title=Real IRA announces its disbandment |url=http://www.rte.ie/news/2002/1020/31093-realira/ |publisher=Raidió Teilifís Éireann |date=20 October 2002 |access-date=3 May 2007}}</ref> After a two-month trial, McKevitt was sentenced to twenty years' imprisonment in August 2003 after being convicted of directing terrorism.<ref>{{cite news |author= |title=McKevitt sentenced to 20 years |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2003/aug/07/northernireland |newspaper=The Guardian |agency=Press Association |date=7 August 2003 |access-date=3 May 2007}}</ref>

===2002–2007===
After McKevitt's imprisonment, the RIRA regrouped and claimed responsibility for a series of firebomb attacks against premises in Belfast in November 2004,<ref>{{cite news |last=Chrisafis |first=Angelique |date=26 November 2004 |title=Firebomb campaign hits Belfast |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2004/nov/26/northernireland.politics |newspaper=The Guardian |access-date=3 May 2007}}</ref> and an attack on a [[Police Service of Northern Ireland]] (PSNI) patrol in [[Ballymena]] during March 2006 was attributed to the RIRA by the [[Independent Monitoring Commission]] (IMC).<ref name="IMC12">{{cite web|last=Independent Monitoring Commission |title=Twelfth report of the Independent Monitoring Commission |pages=12–13 |date=4 October 2006 |publisher=The Stationery Office |url=https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5a7cd726e5274a2c9a4846eb/0101680120.pdf |access-date=4 February 2024 }}</ref> On 9 August 2006, fire bomb attacks by the RIRA hit businesses in [[Newry]], County Down. Buildings belonging to [[JJB Sports]] and [[Carpetright]] were destroyed, and ones belonging to [[MFI (retailer)|MFI]] and [[TK Maxx]] were badly damaged.<ref>{{cite web | title = Real IRA admits city bomb attacks | url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/4783953.stm | publisher = BBC | date = 11 August 2006 | access-date = 3 May 2007}}</ref> On 27 October 2006, a large amount of explosives was found in Kilbranish, [[Mount Leinster]], County Carlow by police, who believe the RIRA were trying to derail the [[Northern Ireland peace process|peace process]] with a bomb attack.<ref>{{cite web | title = Irish police 'foil Real IRA plot' | url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/6094660.stm | publisher = BBC | date = 28 October 2006 | access-date = 3 May 2007}}</ref> The IMC believe the RIRA were also responsible for a failed mortar attack on [[Craigavon (planned town)|Craigavon]] PSNI Station on 4 December 2006.<ref>{{cite web | title = Device is fired at police station | url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/6206266.stm | publisher = BBC | date = 4 December 2006 | access-date = 6 May 2007}}</ref><ref name="IMC15">{{cite web|last=Independent Monitoring Commission |title=Fifteenth report of the Independent Monitoring Commission |page=12 |date=25 April 2007 |publisher=The Stationery Office |url=http://www.nio.gov.uk/fifteenth_report_of_the_independent_monitoring_commission.pdf |access-date=13 July 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101214082450/http://www.nio.gov.uk/fifteenth_report_of_the_independent_monitoring_commission.pdf |archive-date=14 December 2010 }}</ref> The IMC's October 2006 report stated that the RIRA remains "active and dangerous" and that it seeks to "sustain its position as a terrorist organisation".<ref name="IMC12"/> The RIRA has stated it has no intention of calling a ceasefire unless a declaration of intent to withdraw from Northern Ireland is made by the British Government.<ref name="RIRA"/>

In a lengthy interview with the newspaper ''[[An Phoblacht]]'' in 2002, the leadership of the [[Provisional IRA]] said that the RIRA had "no coherent strategy".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/othelem/organ/ira/rira280103.htm|title=CAIN: real Irish Republican Army (rIRA) Statement, 28 January 2003|first=Dr Martin|last=Melaugh|website=cain.ulst.ac.uk|access-date=17 June 2006|archive-date=6 August 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110806160931/http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/othelem/organ/ira/rira280103.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref>

===2007–2011===
[[File:Bogside (21), August 2009.JPG|thumb|Real IRA graffiti in [[Bogside]], Derry]]
On 8 November 2007, two RIRA members shot an off-duty PSNI officer as he sat in his car on Bishop Street in [[Derry]], causing injuries to his face and arm.<ref name="BBC-PSNI-1211">{{cite news |title= Policeman injured in gun attack |url= http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/7091544.stm |work= BBC News |date= 12 November 2007 |access-date=12 November 2007 }}</ref> On 12 November another PSNI member was shot by RIRA members in [[Dungannon]], County Tyrone.<ref name="BBC-PSNI-1211"/><ref>{{cite web | title = Real IRA admits shooting officer | url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/7095156.stm | publisher = BBC | date = 14 November 2007 | access-date = 14 November 2007}}</ref> On 7 February 2008, the RIRA stated that, after experiencing a three-year period of reorganisation, it intended to "go back to war" by launching a new offensive against "legitimate targets".<ref name="resumption">{{cite news | title = Mackey slams Provos as RIRA vows resumption of violence | author = Adrian Mullan | url = http://www.nwipp-newspapers.com/UH/free/349259728115496.php | newspaper = [[Ulster Herald]] | date = 7 February 2008 | access-date = 29 July 2010 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080616191412/http://www.nwipp-newspapers.com/UH/free/349259728115496.php |archive-date = 16 June 2008}}</ref> It also, despite having apologised for the [[Omagh bombing]],<ref name="apology">{{cite web | title = Real IRA apologises for Omagh bomb | url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/events/northern_ireland/focus/153629.stm | publisher = BBC | date = 18 August 1998 | access-date = 29 July 2010}}</ref> denied any large scale involvement with the attack and said that their part had only gone as far as their codeword being used.<ref name="resumption"/> On 12 May 2008 the RIRA seriously injured a member of the PSNI when a booby trap bomb exploded underneath his car near [[Spamount]], County Tyrone.<ref>{{cite web | title = Officer hurt by booby-trap bomb | url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/7397420.stm | publisher = BBC | date = 13 May 2008 | access-date = 22 May 2008}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Murder bid admitted by Real IRA |author=Diana Rusk |url=http://www.irishnews.com/appnews/540/5860/2008/5/16/587806_345515892637Murderbid.html |newspaper=[[The Irish News]] |date=16 May 2008 |access-date=22 May 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090210101742/http://www.irishnews.com/appnews/540/5860/2008/5/16/587806_345515892637Murderbid.html |archive-date=10 February 2009 }}</ref> On 25 September 2008 the RIRA shot a man in the neck in [[St Johnston, County Donegal|St Johnston]], near the [[County Londonderry]] border.<ref name="stj">{{cite news | title = Pipe-bomb target previously shot by RIRA | work = The Irish News | date = 29 October 2008}}</ref> The same man was targeted in a [[pipe bomb]] attack on his home on 25 October, the RIRA did not claim responsibility for the attack, but security forces believe they were responsible for it.<ref name="stj"/>

On 7 March 2009, the RIRA claimed responsibility for the [[2009 Massereene Barracks shooting]].<ref>{{cite web | title = Real IRA was behind army attack | url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/7930995.stm | publisher = BBC | date = 7 March 2009 | access-date = 7 March 2009}}</ref> This shooting occurred outside the [[Massereene Barracks]] as four soldiers were receiving a pizza delivery. Two soldiers were killed, and the other two soldiers and two deliverymen were injured.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/7931260.stm|title= How the barracks attack unfolded|date=8 March 2009|publisher=BBC|access-date=8 March 2009}}</ref> On 3 April 2009, the RIRA in Derry claimed responsibility for carrying out a [[Paramilitary punishment attacks in Northern Ireland|punishment shooting]] of a man who was awaiting sentencing for raping a 15-year-old girl.<ref>{{cite news | url = http://www.londonderrysentinel.co.uk/news/Dissidents-claim-shooting.5138953.jp | archive-url = https://archive.today/20120525122757/http://www.londonderrysentinel.co.uk/news/Dissidents-claim-shooting.5138953.jp | archive-date = 25 May 2012 | title = Dissidents claim shooting | date = 3 April 2009 | newspaper = [[Londonderry Sentinel]] }}</ref> The RIRA were also blamed for orchestrating rioting in the [[Ardoyne]] area of Belfast on 13 July 2009 as an [[Apprentice Boys of Derry|Apprentice Boys]] parade was passing. Several PSNI officers were injured in the rioting and at least one shot was fired at police.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/8148955.stm |title=Real IRA blamed for Belfast riots |date=14 July 2009 |work=BBC News}}</ref> In early November, the Independent Monitoring Commission released a report stating that the threat from the RIRA and other dissident republicans was at its most serious level since the 1998 Good Friday Agreement.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5h7cseWGI0agG0RPjh5CBHQbWOyTAD9BONUPO0 |title=Report: IRA dissidents pose a threat to Northern Ireland |date=4 November 2009 |agency=Associated Press}}{{dead link|date=June 2024|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref>

When drug dealer Sean Winters was shot dead in [[Portmarnock]], north Dublin, in September 2010, the Real IRA "emerged as the chief suspects". They were also suspected of shooting dead drugs gang leader Michael Kelly in [[Coolock]] in September 2011.<ref name="ryan">{{cite news |url=https://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2012/0908/breaking8.html |title=Funeral for Real IRA member |newspaper=[[The Irish Times]] |date=8 September 2012 |access-date=5 October 2012 |archive-date=9 September 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120909072345/http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2012/0908/breaking8.html }}</ref>

On 5 October 2010, a car bomb exploded outside a branch of the [[Ulster Bank]] on Culmore Road in [[Derry]]. Two police officers were slightly injured in the blast, which also damaged a hotel and other businesses. Several telephone warnings were received an hour prior to the blast allowing police to cordon off the area.<ref>{{cite web | title = Real IRA claims responsibility for Derry car bombing | url = https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-11477073 | work = BBC News | date = 5 October 2010 | access-date = 16 December 2011}}</ref> The RIRA later claimed responsibility in a telephone call to the ''[[Derry Journal]]''.<ref>{{cite news | url = https://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2010/1005/breaking1.html | title = Real IRA claims Derry bombing | date = 10 May 2010 | newspaper = The Irish Times | access-date = 20 February 2020 | archive-date = 22 October 2012 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20121022061543/http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2010/1005/breaking1.html }}</ref>

A large Real IRA explosives dump and arms cache were discovered in [[Dunleer]], County Louth by Gardaí in October 2010, following a weekend of searches and arrests in the east of the country.<ref>{{Cite news|title=This article is more than 9 years old Irish police find explosives and arms dump in blow to dissident republicans|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/oct/12/irish-police-arms-explosives-find|last=McDonald|first=Henry|date=12 October 2010|access-date=11 June 2020|work=[[The Guardian]]}}</ref> In addition, two Real IRA men were charged in Dublin's non-jury Special Criminal Court of membership of an illegal organisation.{{citation needed|date=June 2020}} The Real IRA claimed responsibility for kidnapping and shooting dead of one of their members, Kieran Doherty, for alleged drug dealing.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-26315595 |title=Kieran Doherty: Appeal four years after Real IRA murder |work=BBC News |date=24 February 2014}}</ref> Further seizures of the group's arms and explosives by the Gardaí in 2012 and 2013 led to over a dozen more arrests.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.thejournal.ie/dissident-republican-seizure-dublin-988889-Jul2013/ |title=Dissident arms seizure includes golden gun |work=The Journal |date=11 July 2013}}</ref> In 2011 Michael Campbell, brother of Liam, was found guilty in [[Vilnius]], [[Lithuania]], of trying to purchase arms and explosives<ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/8206384.stm|title=Vilnius 'Real IRA' trial to open|date=18 August 2009|access-date=18 August 2009|work=[[BBC News]]}}</ref> and was sentenced to twelve years in prison. In October 2013 Campbell was freed on appeal, only to have the [[Supreme Court of Lithuania]] order a retrial in June 2014.{{update inline|date=April 2019}} Campbell has maintained his innocence, accusing British intelligence of attempting to frame him.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.thejournal.ie/michale-campbell-retrial-1539602-Jun2014/ |title=The Irishman accused of Real IRA gun-running in Lithuania is to face a retrial |newspaper=Irish News |date=27 June 2014}}</ref>

===Since 2012: merger and beyond ("New IRA")===
{{Main|New Irish Republican Army}}
[[File:Rira-tag-derry-road-sign.jpg|thumb|200px|Real IRA graffiti on a road sign in Derry, 2012]]
On 26 July 2012, it was reported that [[Republican Action Against Drugs]] (RAAD) and other small republican militant groups were merging with the Real IRA. As before, the group would continue to refer to itself as "the Irish Republican Army",<ref>{{cite news |last=McDonald |first=Henry |date=26 July 2012 |title=Republican dissidents join forces to form a new IRA |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2012/jul/26/ira-northern-ireland-dissident-republican-groups |newspaper=The Guardian |access-date=26 July 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |author= |title=New IRA: full statement by the dissident 'Army Council' |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2012/jul/26/ira-northern-ireland-dissident-republican-groups1 |newspaper=The Guardian
|date=26 July 2012 |access-date=26 July 2012}}</ref> though some media began to refer to the group as a "new IRA".<ref>{{cite news |author= |title=Rise of the 'new IRA' and what it means for the rest of us |url=https://www.independent.ie/regionals/herald/rise-of-the-new-ira-and-what-it-means-for-the-rest-of-us/28906870.html |newspaper=[[The Herald (Ireland)|The Herald]] |date=17 November 2012 |access-date=22 August 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=McDonald |first=Henry |date=5 December 2012 |title='New IRA' group blamed for killing of Dublin crime boss |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/dec/05/new-ira-blamed-killing-dublin-crime-boss |newspaper=The Guardian |access-date=22 August 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Deeney |first=Donna |date=11 December 2012 |title=Terror suspects part of new dissident group, court told |url=http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/terror-suspects-part-of-new-dissident-group-court-told-29004098.html |newspaper=[[The Belfast Telegraph]] |access-date=22 August 2016}}</ref>

==Structure and status==
The RIRA has a command structure similar to the Provisional IRA, with a seven-member Army Council consisting of a chief of staff, quartermaster general, director of training, director of operations, director of finance, director of publicity, and adjutant general.<ref name="Mooney" />{{rp|40–45}} The rank-and-file members operate in [[active service unit]]s of [[Clandestine cell system#Provisional Irish Republican Army|covert cell]]s to prevent the organisation from being compromised by informers. In June 2005, the organisation was believed to have a maximum of about 150 members, according to a statement by the [[Minister for Justice, Home Affairs and Migration|Irish Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform]], [[Michael McDowell (politician)|Michael McDowell]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Parliamentary Debates (Official Report – Unrevised) Dáil Éireann Thursday, 23 June 2005 – Page 1 |url=http://debates.oireachtas.ie/DDebate.aspx?F=DAL20050623.xml&Page=1&Ex=1487#N1487 |publisher=Office of the Houses of the Oireachtas |date=23 June 2005 |access-date=3 May 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060227022226/http://debates.oireachtas.ie/DDebate.aspx?F=DAL20050623.xml&Page=1&Ex=1487 |archive-date=27 February 2006 }}</ref>

The RIRA also has political wings: the [[32 County Sovereignty Movement]] (formerly the 32 County Sovereignty Committee), led by Francis Mackey,<ref>{{cite news |last=Watt |first=Nicholas |date=16 April 2001 |title=Bombers widen the republican divide |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2001/apr/16/northernireland.devolution |newspaper=The Guardian |access-date=4 May 2007}}</ref> and unregistered political party [[Saoradh]], led by Brian Kenna.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.irishnews.com/news/politicalnews/2016/09/26/news/new-revolutionary-republican-party-saoradh-launched-708613/|title=New 'revolutionary' republican party Saoradh launched|date=26 September 2016}}</ref>

The RIRA is distinct from the [[Continuity Irish Republican Army|Continuity IRA]], another Provisional IRA splinter group founded in 1986, although the two groups have been known to co-operate at a local level.<ref name="IMC8">{{cite web|last=Independent Monitoring Commission |title=Eighth report of the Independent Monitoring Commission |page=13 |date=1 February 2006 |publisher=The Stationery Office |url=http://www.nio.gov.uk/eighth_report_of_the_independent_monitoring_commission.pdf |access-date=13 July 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101214083850/http://www.nio.gov.uk/eighth_report_of_the_independent_monitoring_commission.pdf |archive-date=14 December 2010 }}</ref> The Provisional IRA has been hostile to the RIRA and issued threats to RIRA members, and in October 2000 was alleged to be responsible for the fatal shooting of Belfast RIRA member Joe O'Connor according to O'Connor's family and 32 County Sovereignty Movement member [[Marian Price]].<ref name="English" />{{rp|320–321}}<ref>{{cite news |last=Mullin |first=John |author-link=John Mullin (journalist) |date=19 October 2000 |title=Shots fired at funeral of Real IRA man |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2000/oct/19/northernireland.johnmullin |newspaper=The Guardian |access-date=3 May 2007}}</ref>

Organisations called "Irish Republican Army" are illegal in both UK law<ref>{{cite act |title=Terrorism Act 2000 |date=2000-07-20 |reporter=UK Public General Acts |volume=2000 c. 11 |chapter=Schedule 2: Proscribed Organisations |at=sec. [Section |url=http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2000/11/section/11 |chapter-url=http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2000/11/schedule/2 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130121085241/http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2000/11/schedule/2 |archive-date=2013-01-21 |url-status=live}} </ref> and Irish law;<ref name="dail2004060100245"/><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/1939/sro/162/made/en/print|title=S.I. No. 162/1939 – Unlawful Organisation (Suppression) Order, 1939.|work=[[Irish Statute Book]]|access-date=15 March 2016}} under section 18 of the [[Offences against the State Act 1939]]</ref> both proscriptions have been held to apply to the RIRA as to other groups of the name.<ref name="dail2004060100245">{{cite web|url=http://oireachtasdebates.oireachtas.ie/debates%20authoring/DebatesWebPack.nsf/takes/dail2004060100245|title=Written Answers – Proscribed Organisations.|date=1 June 2004|work=Dáil Éireann debates|access-date=15 March 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.courtsni.gov.uk/en-GB/Judicial%20Decisions/PublishedByYear/Documents/2004/2004%20NICA%2023/j_j_KERC5003.htm |title=The Queen v Z. |date=30 June 2004 |publisher=Courts Service of Northern Ireland |pages=[2004] NICA 23 |access-date=15 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160316001710/https://www.courtsni.gov.uk/en-GB/Judicial%20Decisions/PublishedByYear/Documents/2004/2004%20NICA%2023/j_j_KERC5003.htm |archive-date=16 March 2016 }}</ref> Membership in the organisation is punishable by a sentence of up to ten years' imprisonment under UK law.<ref>{{cite hansard |jurisdiction=United Kingdom |title=Prevention and Suppression of Terrorism |url=https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200102/cmhansrd/vo021030/debtext/21030-08.htm |house=House of Commons |date=30 October 2002 |column=889 |speaker=[[Douglas Hogg]] |position=[[Member of parliament#United Kingdom|Member of Parliament]] for [[Sleaford and North Hykeham (UK Parliament constituency)|Sleaford and North Hykeham]] }} {{Cite web |url=https://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200102/cmhansrd/vo021030/debtext/21030-08.htm |title=House of Commons Hansard Debates for 30 Oct 2002 (Pt 8) |access-date=15 January 2022 |archive-date=17 March 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170317094228/https://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200102/cmhansrd/vo021030/debtext/21030-08.htm |url-status=bot: unknown }}</ref> On 16 May 2001, the United States government designated the RIRA (and its aliases) as a "[[United States State Department list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations|Foreign Terrorist Organization]]" (FTO).<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.wired.com/2001/05/real-ira-gets-terrorist-listing/|title=Real IRA Gets Terrorist Listing|agency=Reuters|date=1 May 2001|magazine=Wired|access-date=20 March 2019}}</ref> This makes it illegal for Americans to [[Providing material support for terrorism|provide material support]] to the RIRA, requires American financial institutions to freeze the group's assets, and denies suspected RIRA members visas into the United States.<ref>{{cite web | title = US brands Real IRA 'terrorists' | url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/1333145.stm |website= BBC | date = 16 May 2001 | access-date = 5 May 2007}}</ref>

==Funding==
{{See also|Paramilitary finances in the Troubles}}
In 2014, ''[[Forbes]]'' magazine estimated the group's annual turnover at US$50 million.<ref>{{cite magazine |url=https://www.forbes.com/pictures/ghki45efh/9-real-ira-annual-turnover-50-million/ |title=The World's 10 Richest Terrorist Organizations |magazine=Forbes |access-date=16 December 2014}}</ref> According to the police in Northern Ireland, the main sources of the Real IRA's funding are illegal fuel operations and various smuggling activities.<ref>{{cite news |last=Ferguson |first=Amanda |date=17 November 2014 |title=Real IRA 'is ninth richest terror group in the world' |url=http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/northern-ireland/real-ira-is-ninth-richest-terror-group-in-the-world-30748913.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141218181658/http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/northern-ireland/real-ira-is-ninth-richest-terror-group-in-the-world-30748913.html |archive-date=18 December 2014 |newspaper=The Belfast Telegraph}}</ref> Illicit cigarettes were also said to be a significant source of income for the group.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.thecre.com/ccsf/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/Illicit-Cigarette-Trafficking-and-the-Funding-of-Terrorism.pdf|title=Illicit cigarette trafficking and the funding of terrorism|last=Billingslea|first=William|year=2004|work=The Police Chief Magazine|access-date=26 June 2017}}</ref> There are also other significant sources of funding from the group, including funding from sympathisers based in the US and other countries.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2013/04/the-boston-bombings-should-make-us-real-ira-supporters-stop-and-think/|title=The Boston bombings should make 'Real IRA' supporters in the US stop and think {{!}} Coffee House|last=Oborne|first=Peter|date=25 April 2013|work=Coffee House|access-date=26 June 2017|language=en-US|archive-date=13 December 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191213025943/https://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2013/04/the-boston-bombings-should-make-us-real-ira-supporters-stop-and-think/}}</ref>

==Weaponry==
The RIRA initially took small amounts of [[materiel]] from Provisional IRA arms dumps under the control of McKevitt and other former Provisional IRA members, including the [[plastic explosive]] [[Semtex]], [[Uzi]] [[submachine gun]]s, [[AK-47]] [[assault rifle]]s, handguns, detonators and timing devices.<ref name="Mooney" />{{rp|321}}<ref name="Janes1"/><ref name="Boyne" />{{rp|382–383}} The defection of senior Provisional IRA members also gave the RIRA the ability to manufacture home-made explosives and improvised mortars, including the [[Barrack buster|Mark 15 mortar]] capable of firing a {{convert|200|lb|adj=on}} shell.<ref name="Mooney" />{{rp|183}}<ref name="Janes1" />

In 1999, the organisation supplemented its equipment by importing arms from Croatia, including military explosive [[TM500]], [[Sa vz. 23|CZ Model 25]] submachine guns, modified AK-47 assault rifles with a folding stock, and RPG-18 and [[RPG-22]] rocket launchers<ref name="Boyne" />{{rp|382,440}} but a July 2000 attempt to smuggle a second consignment of arms was foiled by Croatian police, who seized seven RPG-18s, AK-47 assault rifles, detonators, ammunition, and twenty packs of TM500.<ref name="Boyne" />{{rp|384}}<ref name="Janes2" />

In 2001, [[Slovak Three|RIRA members]] travelled to [[Slovakia]] to procure arms, and were caught in a [[sting operation]] by the British security agency [[MI5]]. The men attempted to purchase five tonnes of plastic explosives, 2,000 detonators, 500 handguns, 200 rocket-propelled-grenades, and also [[wire-guided missile]]s and sniper rifles. Three men from County Louth were arrested and extradited to the UK and subsequently imprisoned for 30 years each after pleading guilty to conspiring to cause explosions and other charges.<ref>{{cite news |last=Norton-Taylor |first=Richard |author-link=Richard Norton-Taylor |date=8 May 2002 |title=30 years in jail for Real IRA trio |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2002/may/08/northernireland.richardnortontaylor |newspaper=The Guardian |access-date=28 June 2007}}</ref>

In June 2006, the PSNI made arrests following an [[MI5]] sting operation targeting a dissident republican gun smuggling plot. The RIRA had attempted to procure arms from France including Semtex and [[C-4 (explosive)|C-4]] plastic explosives, [[SA-7]] [[surface-to-air missile]]s, AK-47s, rocket launchers, heavy machine guns, sniper rifles, pistols with silencers, anti-tank weapons and detonators.<ref name="Boyne" />{{rp|390}}<ref>{{cite news |title=Man in court on 'Real IRA' charge |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/5112572.stm |work=BBC News |date=24 June 2006 |access-date=28 June 2007}}</ref> On 30 June 2010, two of those arrested were found guilty following a trial by judge in Belfast. On 1 October 2010, one man was sentenced to 20 years' imprisonment for attempting to import weapons and explosives, while the other was sentenced to four years' imprisonment for making a Portuguese property available for the purpose of terrorism.<ref>{{cite news | url = https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10464897 | title= Two guilty of Real IRA gun plot | date=30 June 2010 |work=BBC News}}</ref><ref>{{cite news | url = https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-11453874 | title= Pair jailed for Real IRA gun plot | date=1 October 2010 |work=BBC News}}</ref>

== See also ==
* {{Portal inline|Ireland}}
*[[List of designated terrorist groups]]

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

== External links ==
* {{commons category-inline|Real Irish Republican Army}}

{{RIRA/32CSM}}
{{PIRA}}
{{IRAs}}
{{Authority control}}

{{good article}}

[[Category:Real Irish Republican Army| ]]
[[Category:1997 establishments in Ireland]]
[[Category:Organisations designated as terrorist by the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Organizations based in Europe designated as terrorist]]
[[Category:Organizations designated as terrorist by the United States]]
[[Category:Organisations designated as terrorist by New Zealand]]
[[Category:Organizations established in 1997]]
[[Category:Political schisms]]
[[Category:Proscribed paramilitary organisations in Northern Ireland]]
[[Category:Proscribed paramilitary organisations in the Republic of Ireland]]

Official Irish Republican Army

2025-10-22T13:21:53Z

2A02:8012:227B:0:4C4:1152:824F:C6C4: Category:Official Irish Republican Army is alrerady a top-level subcategory of Category:Irish republican militant groups

{{Short description|Former Irish republican paramilitary group}}
{{For-multi|other groups with this name|Irish Republican Army|the policy review office within the United States government|Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs}}
{{Use Hiberno-English|date=May 2022}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2022}}
{{Infobox War Faction
| name = Official Irish Republican Army (''Óglaigh na hÉireann'')
| war = [[the Troubles]]
| flag = [[File:StarryPlough.svg|220px]]
| image = [[File:OfficialIRA1972.jpg|300px]]
| caption = Official IRA patrol vehicle in Turf Lodge, Belfast, April 1972
| active = December 1969 – Late 1990s (on ceasefire from 1972)
| ideology = {{ubl|[[Communism]]|[[Marxism-Leninism]]|[[Irish republicanism]]|[[Anti-imperialism]]|[[Revolutionary socialism]]}}
| position = [[Far-left]]
| leaders = [[Cathal Goulding]], [[Billy McMillen]]
| clans =
| headquarters = [[Dublin]]
| area = [[Northern Ireland]] (mainly); [[Republic of Ireland]]; [[England]]
| size = 1,500–2,000 (between 1969 and 1972)
| predecessor = [[Irish Republican Army (1922–1969)|Irish Republican Army]]
| successor = [[Irish National Liberation Army]]
| allies = {{plainlist|

*{{Flagcountry|Soviet Union}}<ref name="DWAD">{{Cite web|url=https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/news/official-ira-hid-5000-ak47s-in-secret-bunkers-31267061.html|title='Official' IRA hid 5,000 AK-47s in secret bunkers|website=Independent.ie|date=31 May 2015 }}</ref>
*{{Flagcountry|North Korea|1948}}<ref name="DWAD" />}}
| split = [[Anti-Treaty Irish Republican Army]]
| opponents = {{flagdeco|United Kingdom}} [[United Kingdom]]
*{{Army|United Kingdom}}
*{{Flagicon image|Flag of the Royal Ulster Constabulary.svg|size=23px}} [[Royal Ulster Constabulary]]
[[Ulster loyalism#Paramilitary and vigilante groups|Ulster loyalist paramilitaries]] [[Provisional IRA]] [[Irish National Liberation Army]]
| battles =
}}
{{Irish republicanism|Militant groups}}

The '''Official Irish Republican Army''' or '''Official IRA''' (OIRA; {{Langx|ga|[[Óglaigh na hÉireann]]}}) was an [[Irish republican]] paramilitary group whose goal was to remove [[Northern Ireland]] from the [[United Kingdom]] and create a "[[workers' republic]]" encompassing [[United Ireland|all of Ireland]].<ref>Statement from Cathal Goulding, C/S of the Official IRA, in early 1972, quoted in ''On Our Knees'' by Rosita Sweetman, Pan Books, London. 1972. {{ISBN|0-330-23320-3}}. p. 146</ref> It emerged in December 1969, shortly after the beginning of [[the Troubles]], when the [[Irish Republican Army (1922–1969)|Irish Republican Army]] (IRA) split into two factions. The other was the [[Provisional IRA]]. Each continued to call itself simply "the IRA" and rejected the other's legitimacy.

Unlike the "Provisionals", the "Officials" did not think that Ireland could be unified until the [[Protestantism in Ireland|Protestant]] majority and [[Irish Catholics|Catholic]] minority [[Demographics of Northern Ireland|of Northern Ireland]] were at peace. The Officials were [[Marxist–Leninists]] and worked to form a [[united front]] with other Irish [[communist]] groups, named the Irish National Liberation Front (NLF).<ref>Coogan, Tim Pat. ''The Troubles: Ireland's Ordeal and the Search for Peace''. Palgrave Macmillan, 2002. p.113</ref> The Officials were called the NLF by the Provisionals<ref>Taylor, Peter. ''Behind the Mask: The IRA and Sinn Fein''. TV Books, 1999. p.84</ref><ref>O'Ballance, Edgar. ''Terror in Ireland: The Heritage of Hate''. Presidio Press, 1981. p.133</ref> and "'''stickies'''" by nationalists in Belfast (apparently in reference to members who would glue Easter lilies to their uniforms),<ref>"On the streets of Belfast, they were often distinguished as the 'Provos' and the 'Stickies', because Officials would supposedly wear commemorative Easter lilies stuck onto their shirtfronts with adhesive, whereas the more dyed-in-the wool Provos wore paper lilies affixed with a pin." Chapter 4, Keefe, Patrick Redden "Say Nothing: A Tale of Murder and Mystery in Ireland", published 2018</ref> and they were sometimes nicknamed the "'''Red IRA'''" by others.<ref>Rekawek, Kacper. ''Irish Republican Terrorism and Politics: A Comparative Study of the Official and the Provisional IRA''. Taylor & Francis, 2011. pp.1–2</ref><ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/1989/09/14/obituaries/seamus-twomey-70-a-leader-of-provisional-ira.html "Obituaries: Seamus Twomey, 70, a Leader of Provisional I.R.A."] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171219235323/http://www.nytimes.com/1989/09/14/obituaries/seamus-twomey-70-a-leader-of-provisional-ira.html |date=19 December 2017 }}. Reuters. ''The New York Times'', 14 September 1989.</ref><ref>"IRA itself is divided on strategy, ideology". ''The Toledo Blade'', 11 November 1971.</ref>

[[Timeline of Official Irish Republican Army actions|It waged a limited campaign against the British Army]], mainly involving shooting and bombing attacks on troops in urban working-class neighbourhoods. Most notably, it was involved in the 1970 [[Falls Curfew]] and carried out the [[1972 Aldershot bombing]]. In May 1972, it declared a ceasefire and vowed to limit its actions to defence and retaliation.<ref>{{cite book|last=Holland|first= Jack |year=1994|title=INLA: Deadly Divisions|pages=17, 26, 39|location=Dublin|publisher= Torc|isbn= 1-898142-05-X}}</ref> By this time, the Provisional IRA had become the larger and more active faction. Following the ceasefire, the OIRA began to be referred to as "Group B" within the Official movement.<ref>Sanders, Andrew. ''Inside the IRA: Dissident Republicans and the War for Legitimacy''. Edinburgh University Press, 2011. p.191</ref><ref>Brian Hanley and Scott Millar, ''The Lost Revolution: The Story of the Official IRA and the Workers' Party''. Penguin UK, 2009. Chapter 12: Group B.</ref> It became involved in feuds with the Provisional IRA and the [[Irish National Liberation Army]] (INLA),<ref>{{cite book|last=Holland|first= Jack |year=1994|title=INLA: Deadly Divisions|pages=41–54|location=Dublin|publisher= Torc|isbn= 1-898142-05-X}}</ref> an OIRA splinter group formed in 1974. It has also been reported to be involved in [[organized crime]] and [[vigilantism]].

The Official IRA was linked to the political party Official Sinn Féin, later renamed Sinn Féin The Workers Party and then the [[Workers' Party (Ireland)|Workers' Party]].

== Split in the Republican movement, 1969–1970 ==

===Shift to the left===
The split in the [[Irish Republican Army]], soon followed by a parallel split in [[Sinn Féin]], was the result of the dissatisfaction of more traditional and militant [[Irish republicanism|republicans]] at the political direction taken by the leadership. The particular object of their discontent was Sinn Féin's ending of its policy of [[abstentionism]] in the [[Republic of Ireland]]. This issue is a key one in republican ideology, as traditional republicans regarded the Irish state as illegitimate and maintained that their loyalty was due only to the [[Irish Republic]] declared in 1916 and in their view, represented by the IRA Army Council.<ref>''The Lost Revolution: The Story of the Official IRA and the Workers Party'', Brian Hanley and Scott Millar, {{ISBN|1-84488-120-2}}</ref>

During the 1960s, the republican movement under the leadership of [[Cathal Goulding]] radically re-assessed their ideology and tactics after the dismal failure of the IRA's [[Border Campaign (IRA)|Border Campaign]] in the years 1956–62. They were heavily influenced by [[popular front]] ideology and drew close to [[communist]] thinking. A key intermediary body was the [[Communist Party of Great Britain]]'s organisation for Irish exiles, the [[Connolly Association]]. The [[Marxist analysis]] was that the conflict in Northern Ireland was a "[[bourgeois]] nationalist" one between the [[Ulster Protestant]] and [[Irish Catholic]] [[working class]]es, fomented and continued by the [[ruling class]]. Its effect was to depress wages, since worker could be set against worker. They concluded that the first step on the road to a [[Counties of Ireland|32-county]] [[socialist republic]] in [[Ireland]] was the "democratisation" of [[Northern Ireland]] (i.e., the removal of discrimination against Catholics) and radicalisation of the southern working class. This would allow "class politics" to develop, eventually resulting in a challenge to the hegemony of both what they termed "[[British imperialism]]" and the respective [[Irish unionism|unionist]] and [[Irish nationalist]] establishments north and south of the Irish border.<ref>''The Lost Revolution: The Story of the Official IRA and the Workers Party'', Brian Hanley and Scott Millar, pp. 22–70, {{ISBN|1-84488-120-2}}</ref>

Goulding and those close to him argued that, in the context of sectarian division in Northern Ireland, a military campaign against the British presence would be counter-productive, since it would delay the day when the workers would unite to address social and economic issues.

The sense that the IRA seemed to be drifting away from its conventional republican roots into [[Marxism]] angered more traditional republicans. The radicals viewed Ulster Protestants with unionist views as "fellow Irishmen deluded by bourgeois loyalties, who needed to be engaged in dialectical debate".{{Citation needed|date=October 2007}} As a result, they were reluctant to use force to defend Catholic areas of [[Belfast]] when they came under attack from [[Ulster loyalists]]—a role the IRA had performed since the 1920s.<ref>{{cite book|last=Holland|first= Jack |year=1994|title=INLA:Divisions|pages=8–10|location=Dublin|publisher= Torc|isbn= 1-898142-05-X}}</ref> Since the [[Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association]] marches began in 1968, there had been many cases of street violence. The [[Royal Ulster Constabulary]] (RUC) had been shown on television in undisciplined baton charges, and had already killed five non-combatant civilians, three of whom were children. The [[Orange Order]]'s "marching season" during the summer of 1969 had been characterised by violence on both sides, which culminated in the three-day "[[Battle of the Bogside]]" in [[Derry]].

===August 1969 riots===

The critical moment came in August 1969 when there was a major outbreak of intercommunal violence in [[Belfast]] and [[Derry]], with eight deaths, six of them Catholics, and whole streets ablaze. On 14–15 August loyalists burned out several Catholic streets in Belfast in the [[Northern Ireland riots of August 1969]]. IRA units offered resistance, however very few weapons were available for the defence of Catholic areas. Many local IRA figures, and ex-IRA members such as [[Joe Cahill]] and [[Billy McKee]], were incensed by what they saw as the leadership's decision not to take sides and in September, they announced that they would no longer be taking orders from the Goulding leadership.<ref>''The Lost Revolution: The Story of the Official IRA and the Workers Party'', Brian Hanley and Scott Millar, p. 33</ref>

Discontent was not confined to the northern IRA units. In the south also, such figures as [[Ruairí Ó Brádaigh]] and [[Sean MacStiofain]] opposed both the leadership's proposed recognition of Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. This increasing political divergence led to a formal split at the 1969 IRA Convention, held in December. when a group led by Ó Brádaigh and MacStiofán walked out. The split resulted from a vote at the first IRA Convention where a two-thirds majority voted that republicans should take their seats if elected to the British, Republic of Ireland or Northern Ireland Parliaments. At a second convention, a group consisting of Mac Stiofáin, [[Dáithí Ó Conaill]], Ó Brádaigh, Joe Cahill, Paddy Mulcahy, [[Leo Martin (Irish republican)|Leo Martin]], and Sean Tracey, were elected as the "Provisional" Army Council. Their supporters included [[Seamus Twomey]].

Accounts at that time suggest that the IRA members split roughly in half, with those loyal to the Goulding-led "Official" IRA prominent in some areas while the Provisional IRA were prominent in others.<ref>"The numerous faces of the I.R.A.", This Week, 29 May 1970; J. Bowyer Bell, The Secret Army, pp. 367, 377</ref> A strong area for the Official IRA in Belfast was the Lower Falls and Markets district, which were under the command of [[Billy McMillen]]. Other OIRA units were located in Derry, [[Newry]], [[Strabane]], Dublin, [[Wicklow]] and other parts of Belfast. However, the Provisionals would rapidly become the dominant faction, both as a result of intensive recruitment in response to the sectarian violence and because some Official IRA units (such as the [[Strabane]] company) later defected to them.<ref>Eamon Mallie, Patrick Bishop, Provisional IRA, p.144</ref>

There was a similar ideological split in [[Sinn Féin]] after a contentious 1970 Sinn Féin [[Ard Fheis]]. The leadership of Sinn Féin passed a motion to recognise the Parliaments in London, Dublin and Stormont but failed to attain the prerequisite two-thirds majority necessary to change Sinn Féin's constitutional opposition to partitionist assemblies. Those defeated in the motion walked out.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=P-LZtivJYJwC&q=Self%2C+Identity%2C+and+Social+Movements Self, Identity, and Social Movements] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170216042357/https://books.google.com/books?id=P-LZtivJYJwC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Self,+Identity,+and+Social+Movements&hl=en&sa=X&ei=eFfqUaXsK6uN4gTswYGICg&ved=0CDIQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=Self%2C%20Identity%2C%20and%20Social%20Movements&f=false |date=16 February 2017 }}, [[Sheldon Stryker]], Timothy Joseph Owens, Robert William White, (2000), p333</ref> This resulted in a split into two groups with the Sinn Féin name. Those supportive of [[Seán Mac Stiofáin]]'s "Provisional Army Council", were referred to in the media as Provisional Sinn Féin,<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=mtazQUWbUmsC&dq=provisional+sinn+fein&pg=PA118 ''Assassin''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170216042710/https://books.google.com/books?id=mtazQUWbUmsC&pg=PA118&dq=provisional+sinn+fein&hl=en&sa=X&ei=AlTqUYnqH6el4gTI0YDQBw&ved=0CDoQ6AEwAjge#v=onepage&q=provisional%20sinn%20fein&f=false |date=16 February 2017 }}, John Bowyer Bell, (1979), p118</ref><ref>Sinn Féin, 1905–2005:
in the shadow of gunmen, Kevin Rafter, (2005), p76</ref> or Sinn Féin Kevin Street, and contested elections as Sinn Féin. The other group, under the leadership of [[Tomás Mac Giolla]], was to contest elections first as Official Sinn Féín, then [[Sinn Féin The Workers' Party]], and aligned itself with the Official IRA, as the Marxist faction had come to be known. The party retained the historic Sinn Féin headquarters of Gardiner Street, thus giving legitimacy to its claim, in the eyes of some,{{who|date=February 2022}} to be the legitimate successor of that party. It was briefly known popularly as Sinn Féin Gardiner Place.

The Officials were known as the "Stickies" because they sold stick-on [[Easter Lily (badge)|lilies]] to commemorate the [[Easter Rising]]. The Provisionals, by contrast, were known as "Pinnies" (pejoratively "Pinheads") because they produced pinned-on lilies. The term "Stickies" persisted for the Officials, although Pinnies (and Pinheads) disappeared, in favour of the nickname "Provos" and for a time, "Provies" for the Provisional IRA. (The paper-and-pin Easter Lily of the IRA was the traditional commemorative badge of the Easter Rising,<ref>[http://www.anphoblacht.com/news/detail/18577 The Easter Lily] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071012162840/http://anphoblacht.com/news/detail/18577 |date=12 October 2007 }} An Phoblacht, 5 April 2007</ref> whereas the self-adhesive Easter Lily of the Officials was a novel invention, symbolic of the divergence of opinion between them).

== Impact of the split ==
Initially there was much confusion among republicans on the ground; [[Martin McGuinness]] for example, joined the Official IRA in 1970, unaware that there had been a split and only later joined the Provisionals. The Provisionals eventually extended their [[Provisional IRA campaign 1969-1997|armed campaign]] from defence of Catholic areas. Despite the reluctance of Cathal Goulding and the OIRA leadership, their volunteers on the ground were inevitably drawn into the violence. The Official IRA's first major confrontation with the British Army came in the [[Falls Curfew]] of July 1970, when over 3,000 British soldiers raided the Lower Falls area for arms, leading to three days of gun battles. The Official IRA lost a large amount of weaponry, and their members on the ground blamed the Provisionals for starting the firing and then leaving them alone to face the British. The bad feeling left by this and other incidents led to a feud between the two IRAs in 1970, with several shootings carried out by either side. The two IRA factions arranged a truce between them after the OIRA killing of Provisional activist, and Belfast brigade D-Company commander, Charlie Hughes (a cousin of the well-known Provisional [[Brendan Hughes]]).{{citation needed|date=February 2020}}

Soviet defector [[Vasili Mitrokhin]] alleged in the 1990s that the Goulding leadership sought, in 1969, a small quantity of arms (roughly 70 rifles, along with some hand guns and explosives) from the [[KGB]]. The request was approved and the weapons reportedly arrived in Ireland in 1972,<ref>Christopher Andrew and Vasili Mitrokhin, The Mitrokhin Archive pp492 – 503</ref> although this has not been independently verified. On the whole, the OIRA had a more restricted level of activity than the Provisionals. Unlike the Provisionals, it did not establish ''[[de facto]]'' control over large Catholic areas of Belfast and Derry and its use of force was more defensive. However it retained a strong presence in certain localities, notably the Lower [[Falls Road, Belfast|Falls Road]], [[Andersonstown]], [[Turf Lodge]] and the Markets areas of Belfast, along with a strong presence in Derry (particularly [[Free Derry]] in the [[Bogside]] area) as well as [[Newry]] and South [[County Down]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://cedarlounge.files.wordpress.com/2009/01/orm205.pdf |title=Members of the ruling army council of The Official I.R.A. issuing a statement july 1970 |access-date=27 January 2014 |archive-date=21 February 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140221212136/http://cedarlounge.files.wordpress.com/2009/01/orm205.pdf |url-status=live}}</ref>

==Paramilitary campaign==

While the OIRA occasionally fought the British Army and the RUC throughout 1970 (as well as the Provisional IRA during a 1970 feud), they did not have a strong paramilitary presence until early 1971. In August 1971, after the introduction of [[Operation Demetrius|internment without trial]], OIRA units fought numerous gun battles with British troops who were deployed to arrest suspected republicans.{{citation needed|date=January 2013}} The Official IRA company in the Markets area of Belfast, led by [[Joe McCann]], held off an incursion into the area by over 600 British troops.<ref>Jack Holland, Henry McDonald, Deadly Divisions, p10</ref> In December 1971, the Official IRA killed [[Ulster Unionist Party]] (UUP) Senator [[John Barnhill (politician)|John Barnhill]] at his home in [[Strabane]].<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20071201172320/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,905596,00.html Acceptable Violence?], ''[[Time Magazine]]'', 27 December 1971</ref> This was the first murder of a politician in [[Northern Ireland]] or the [[Republic of Ireland]] since the assassination of [[Irish Free State|Free State]] Minister for Justice [[Kevin O'Higgins]] in 1927. In February 1972, the organisation also made an attempt on the life of UUP politician [[John Taylor, Baron Kilclooney|John Taylor]].<ref>{{cite news |title=John Taylor: Profile |publisher=[[BBC News]] |date=30 January 2001 |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/1144830.stm |access-date=15 June 2015 |archive-date=10 April 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210410123124/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/1144830.stm |url-status=live }}</ref>

On [[Bloody Sunday (1972)|Bloody Sunday]] (30 January 1972), an OIRA man in [[Derry]] is believed by the [[Saville Inquiry]] to have fired a shot with a revolver at British troops, after they had shot dead 13 civil rights demonstrators {{ndash}} the only republican shots fired on the day and contrary to his orders.<ref>"Report of The Bloody Sunday Inquiry – Volume I – Chapter 3". Saville Bloody Sunday Inquiry. 15 June 2010.</ref> The anger caused by Bloody Sunday among Irish people was such that the Official IRA announced that it would launch an "offensive" against British forces.{{citation needed|date=January 2013}}

However, the OIRA declared a [[ceasefire]] later in the same year.<ref name="bbc2973759">{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/30/newsid_2973000/2973759.stm|title=30 May 1972: Official IRA declares ceasefire|work=On this day| date=30 May 1972 |publisher=[[BBC Online]]|access-date=13 June 2013|archive-date=2 January 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080102225127/http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/30/newsid_2973000/2973759.stm|url-status=live}}</ref> The ceasefire, on 30 May,<ref name="bbc2973759"/> followed a number of armed actions which had been politically damaging. The organisation [[1972 Aldershot Bombing|bombed]] the [[Aldershot]] headquarters of the [[Parachute Regiment (United Kingdom)|Parachute Regiment]] (the main perpetrators of Bloody Sunday), but killed only six civilians and a Roman Catholic army chaplain.{{citation needed|date=January 2013}} After the killing of William Best, a Catholic British soldier home on leave in Derry, the OIRA declared a ceasefire. In addition, the death of several militant OIRA figures such as Joe McCann in confrontations with British soldiers, enabled the Goulding leadership to call off their armed campaign, which it had never supported wholeheartedly.

== After 1972 ==

Although formally on ceasefire (except for "defensive actions") since 1972, the Official IRA continued some attacks on British forces up until at least 1976,<ref>''Belfast News Letter'', 27 August 1976.</ref> killing seven British soldiers in what it termed "retaliatory attacks". In addition, the OIRA's weapons were used intermittently in the ongoing feud with the Provisionals. This flared up into violence on several occasions, notably in October 1975. 11 republicans on either side were killed in the feud and a nine-year-old girl was shot dead by the Provisionals when they tried to shoot her father.

In 1974, radical elements within the organisation who objected to the ceasefire, led by [[Seamus Costello]], established the [[Irish National Liberation Army]] (INLA). Another feud ensued in the first half of 1975, during which three INLA and five OIRA members were killed. The dead included prominent members of both organisations including Costello and the OIRA O/C, [[Billy McMillen]]. However, from the mid-1970s onwards, the Official republican movement became increasingly focused on achieving its aims through left-wing constitutional politics. This did not stop sporadic paramilitary activity from the OIRA, who on 8 September 1979 killed Hugh O'Halloran in a [[punishment beating]] in the Ballymurphy area of Belfast.<ref>[http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/sutton/chron/1979.html Sutton Index of Deaths – 1979] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100109041847/http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/sutton/chron/1979.html |date=9 January 2010 }} Conflict Archive on the Internet</ref><ref>''The Lost Revolution: The Story of the Official IRA and the Workers Party'', Brian Hanley and Scott Millar, p. 411</ref> O' Halloran was beaten to death with a [[hurley stick]] and a [[pickaxe handle]].<ref name="ll">{{cite book | last = McKittrick | first = David | author-link = David McKittrick | title = Lost Lives: The Stories of the Men, Women and Children Who Died as a Result of the Northern Ireland Troubles | date = 2004 |publisher = Mainstream Publishing |isbn = 978-1840185041 | page = 800}}</ref> Two men, one of them who admitted to OIRA membership, were imprisoned for his [[manslaughter]].<ref name="ll"/> The OIRA lost a number of members who gradually drifted away from the ceasefire up to shortly after the [[1981 Hunger Strike]], many either joining the Provisional IRA or the INLA or some simply dropping out.

From 1981 on, Sinn Féin the Workers Party, renamed the [[Workers' Party (Ireland)|Workers' Party]] the following year, had some success in the Republic of Ireland, but little in Northern Ireland.

Throughout the 1980s, allegations that the Official IRA remained in existence and was engaged in criminal activity appeared in the Irish press. In June 1982 the feud with the INLA flared again after OIRA member [[James Flynn (Official IRA member)|James Flynn]], the alleged assassin of Seamus Costello,<ref>[http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/othelem/chron/ch82.htm A Chronology of the Conflict – 1982] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101206165957/http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/othelem/chron/ch82.htm |date=6 December 2010 }} Conflict Archive on the INternet</ref> was shot dead by the INLA in Dublin.<ref>[http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/sutton/chron/1982.html Sutton Index of Deaths – 1982] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110514143341/http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/sutton/chron/1982.html |date=14 May 2011 }} Conflict Archive on the Internet</ref> In December 1985 five men, including Anthony McDonagh, pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy to defraud the Inland Revenue in Northern Ireland—McDonagh was described in court as an Official IRA commander.<ref>Derek Dunne: In Dublin Magazine, October 1987</ref> In February 1992 a British ''Spotlight'' programme alleged that the Official IRA was still active and involved in widespread [[racketeering]] and armed robberies.<ref>{{cite book | last = De Baroid | first = Ciaran | title = Ballymurphy and the Irish War | publisher = [[Pluto Press]] |year=1989 | isbn = 0-7453-1514-3 }}</ref>

In 1990 the OIRA and Provisional IRA came to the brink of a feud twice, following clashes in which members of the two organisations were injured. Allegedly, mediators attempting to defuse the situation said the OIRA were at fault in both incidents.<ref>''Sunday Tribune'', 3 December 1990.</ref><ref name=":0">''Sunday Tribune'', 27 October 1991.</ref>

British security forces were aware of the continued existence of the OIRA; in 1991 a senior RUC source was quoted on a BBC ''Spotlight'' programme as saying that the Worker's Party couldn't survive without funding from OIRA criminal activity and the protection the OIRA gave the party against the Provisional IRA. Despite this the [[Northern Ireland Office]] continued to receive Workers Party delegations. [[Social Democratic and Labour Party]] (SDLP) politician Brian Feeney alleged that the OIRA weren't interfered with in working-class Nationalist areas of Belfast to keep the Provisional IRA in check.<ref name=":0" />

These eventually proved a considerable political embarrassment to the Workers' Party, and in 1992 the leadership proposed amendments to the party constitution which would, inter alia, effectively allow it to purge members suspected of involvement in the Official IRA. This proposal failed to obtain the required two-thirds support at the party conference that year, and as a result the leadership, including six of the party's seven members of [[Dáil Éireann]], left to establish a new party, later named [[Democratic Left (Ireland)|Democratic Left]].

In 1995, some former Official IRA members in the [[Newry]] area launched a "re-founded" Official Republican Movement (ORM). This group was believed to have engaged in attacks on drug dealers in the Newry area in the late 1990s.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Holland|first1=Jack|last2=Markey|first2=Patrick|title=North's major drug baron shot dead in Newry|url=http://irishecho.com/2011/02/norths-major-drug-baron-shot-dead-in-newry-3/|access-date=4 March 2016|work=Irish Echo|date=21–27 October 1998|archive-date=7 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160307035727/http://irishecho.com/2011/02/norths-major-drug-baron-shot-dead-in-newry-3/|url-status=live}}</ref> In 1997 violence erupted between the ORM and the IRA; two ORM members and two Sinn Féin supporters were injured in separate gun attacks.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Moriarty|first1=Gerry|title=Four injured as republicans feud|url=http://www.irishtimes.com/news/four-injured-as-republicans-feud-1.89395|access-date=4 March 2016|newspaper=The Irish Times|date=17 July 1997|archive-date=7 February 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160207212506/http://www.irishtimes.com/news/four-injured-as-republicans-feud-1.89395|url-status=live}}</ref>

There have been allegations of criminality against former senior Official IRA figure [[Seán Garland]], who was accused in 2005 by the United States of helping to produce and circulate counterfeit [[US dollars]] allegedly printed in [[North Korea]].<ref>{{cite press release |url=http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/dc/Press_Releases/2005_Archives/Oct_2005/05370.html |title=Leader of Irish Workers' Party and Official Irish Republican Army Leader of Irish Workers' Party and Official Irish Republican Army Arrested in United Kingdom on U.S. Indictment Charging Trafficking in Counterfeit United States Currency |publisher=U.S. Department of Justice |date=8 October 2005 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051014220354/http://www.justice.gov/usao/dc/Press_Releases/2005_Archives/Oct_2005/05370.html |archive-date=14 October 2005}}</ref><ref>BBC [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4337610.stm US says N Korea forged dollars] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210512005606/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4337610.stm |date=12 May 2021 }} 13 October</ref>

==Timeline of attacks and actions==
{{main|Timeline of Official Irish Republican Army actions}}

==Decommissioning==
In October 2009, after a long period of inactivity, the Official IRA began talks with a view to decommissioning its stockpile of weapons,<ref>{{cite news |last1=McCaffrey |first1=Barry |title=Official IRA starts talking to arms body |url=https://www.irishnews.com/articles/540/5860/2009/10/10/629718_396544758525OfficialI.html |work=Irish News |date=10 October 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091015071331/https://www.irishnews.com/articles/540/5860/2009/10/10/629718_396544758525OfficialI.html |archive-date=15 October 2009}}</ref> and in February 2010 the Newry-based [[#After 1972|Official Republican Movement]] announced that it had decommissioned its weapons.<ref>{{cite news|author=Allison Morris|title=Exclusive: The inside story of how the gun was taken out of Irish politics|url=http://www.irishnews.com/news/decommissioning/2018/02/20/exclusive-the-inside-story-of-how-the-gun-was-taken-out-of-irish-politics-1259113/|work=[[Irish News]]|date=20 February 2018|access-date=13 February 2020|archive-date=13 February 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200213173957/http://www.irishnews.com/news/decommissioning/2018/02/20/exclusive-the-inside-story-of-how-the-gun-was-taken-out-of-irish-politics-1259113/|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Statement by the Official IRA about Decommissioning|url=https://cain.ulster.ac.uk/othelem/organ/oira/oira080210.htm|work=[[Conflict Archive on the Internet]]|date=8 February 2010|access-date=13 February 2020|archive-date=8 July 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200708025947/https://cain.ulster.ac.uk/othelem/organ/oira/oira080210.htm|url-status=live}}</ref> The process was confirmed to be completed by the [[Independent International Commission on Decommissioning]] on 8 February 2010, coming in the last 24 hours of the commission's existence.<ref name=Timesdecom>[https://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article7019958.ece Three more Northern Ireland terrorist groups lay down their arms] ''The Times'' {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110604190543/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article7019958.ece |date=4 June 2011 }}</ref> The decommissioning was completed at the same time as that of the republican INLA and the loyalist [[UDA South East Antrim Brigade]].<ref name=Timesdecom/> The step was described by [[British Prime Minister]] [[Gordon Brown]] as a "central part of moving Northern Ireland from violence to peace".<ref name=Timesdecom/>

In 2015, it was reported that up to 5,000 Official IRA weapons may still be hidden in secret bunkers. The weapons were supplied to the OIRA in the 1980s by the [[Soviet Union]]'s [[KGB]] and [[North Korea]]. The report said that the weapons were to be used to defend Catholic areas if there was an outbreak of major sectarian conflict, and that the plan was known only to a few high-ranking members of the organisation.<ref name="POP">[http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/official-ira-doomsday-bunkers-may-still-contain-thousands-of-weapons-31267631.html "Official IRA "doomsday" bunkers may still contain thousands of weapons"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305225253/http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/official-ira-doomsday-bunkers-may-still-contain-thousands-of-weapons-31267631.html |date=5 March 2016 }}. ''[[Belfast Telegraph]]''. 31 May 2015.</ref>

==Support==
{{See also|Irish Republican Army–Soviet Union collaboration}}
The Official IRA had relations with the Soviet Union during the Troubles. One Irish diplomat in Moscow once wrote that Ireland provided the Soviets with a "convenient stick with which to beat the West."<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://historytothepublic.org/a-convenient-stick-with-which-to-beat-the-west-northern-ireland-under-soviet-eyes/|title=Northern Ireland Under Soviet Eyes|last=Casey|first=Maurice|date=2015-08-26|website=History to the Public|language=en-GB|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200203115134/http://historytothepublic.org/a-convenient-stick-with-which-to-beat-the-west-northern-ireland-under-soviet-eyes/|archive-date=3 February 2020|access-date=2019-08-03|url-status=dead}}</ref> Assistance from the Soviet Union first occurred in late 1972 when [[Yuri Andropov]] who was then the head of the [[KGB]] (later to become General Secretary of the Soviet Union) authorized weapons shipments. On 21 August 1972, Andropov had presented a plan known as SPLASH to the [[Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union]]. It was entitled "Plan for the Operation of a Shipment of Weapons to the Irish Friends". Two machine guns, 70 [[automatic rifles]], 10 [[Carl Walther GmbH#Handguns|Walther pistols]] and 41,600 cartridges were sent. The pistols were lubricated with West German oil and the packaging was taken from several countries around the world by KGB agents so that the weapons could not be traced back to the Soviet Union. The weapons were brought to Ireland using a Soviet spy ship known as ''Reduktor''.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.irishecho.com/2011/02/kgb-armed-official-ira-book-reveals/|title=KGB armed Official IRA, book reveals|date=February 16, 2011}}</ref> Official IRA members also travelled to the Soviet Union for training. North Korea also sent arms to the Officials and taught them with assassination techniques and bomb-making skills. Throughout the 1980s, at least 5,000 weapons were supplied by Soviet and North Korean officials to the OIRA.<ref name="DWAD"/><ref name="POP"/>

In July 1973, Irish [[Garda Síochána|Garda]] discovered eight cases of 17 rifles, 29,000 rounds of ammunition and about 60 pounds of gunpowder in Dublin sent to the OIRA by Canadian citizen John Patrick Murphy.<ref>{{cite journal|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/27041321|title=The Canadian Dimension to the Northern Ireland Conflict|author=Andrew Sanders and F. Stuart Ross|date=2020|page=200|journal=The Canadian Journal of Irish Studies|volume=43 |jstor=27041321 }}</ref> While the Officials tried to gather help from supporters in America, there was little to no evidence of such a thing happening.<ref>{{cite book|title=Inside the IRA: Dissident Republicans and the War for Legitimacy|author=Andrew Sanders|date=April 25, 2011|page=121|publisher=[[Edinburgh University Press]]|isbn=9-7807-4864-6043}}</ref>

==Deaths as a result of activity==
According to Malcolm Sutton's ''Index of Deaths from the Conflict in Ireland'', part of the [[Conflict Archive on the Internet]] (CAIN), the OIRA was responsible for at least 50 killings during the Troubles.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/sutton/tables/Organisation_Responsible.html |title=Sutton Index of Deaths: Organisation responsible for the death |publisher=[[Conflict Archive on the Internet]] (CAIN) |access-date=1 September 2014 |archive-date=9 July 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170709035408/http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/sutton/tables/Organisation_Responsible.html |url-status=live }}</ref> According to the book ''Lost Lives'' (2006 edition), it was responsible for 57 killings.<ref name=lostlives-stats>[[David McKittrick]] et al. ''Lost Lives: The Stories of the Men, Women and Children who Died as a Result of the Northern Ireland Troubles''. Random House, 2006. pp. 1551–54</ref>

Of those killed by the OIRA:<ref>{{cite web |url=http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/sutton/crosstabs.html |title=Sutton Index of Deaths: Crosstabulations (two-way tables) |publisher=[[Conflict Archive on the Internet]] (CAIN) |access-date=1 September 2014 |archive-date=24 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160324044004/http://www.cain.ulst.ac.uk/sutton/crosstabs.html |url-status=live }} (choose "organization" and "status"/"status summary" as the variables)</ref>
*22 (≈44%) were civilians, including 4 civilian political activists
*19 (≈38%) were members or former members of the British security forces, including:
**15 [[British Armed Forces|British soldiers]] and 1 former soldier
**3 [[Royal Ulster Constabulary|RUC]] officers
*8 (≈16%) were members or former members of Republican paramilitaries
*1 was a [[Ulster Defence Association|UDA]] member

The CAIN database says there were 27 OIRA members killed during the conflict,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/sutton/tables/Status.html |title=Sutton Index of Deaths: Status of the person killed |publisher=[[Conflict Archive on the Internet]] (CAIN) |access-date=1 September 2014 |archive-date=14 May 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110514142516/http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/sutton/tables/Status.html |url-status=live }}</ref> while ''Lost Lives'' says there were 35 killed.<ref name=lostlives-stats/>

==See also==
*[[Timeline of Official Irish Republican Army actions]]
*[[Official IRA Belfast Brigade]]
*[[Eoghan Harris]]
*[[Henry McDonald (writer)]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
*[http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/30/newsid_2973000/2973759.stm "Official IRA declares ceasefire"]. [[BBC News]], 30 May 1972.
{{OIRA/WP}}
{{ATIRA}}
{{The Troubles|state=collapsed}}
{{IRAs}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Official Irish Republican Army| ]]
[[Category:Provisional Irish Republican Army]]
[[Category:Proscribed paramilitary organisations in Northern Ireland]]
[[Category:Proscribed paramilitary organisations in the Republic of Ireland]]
[[Category:Irish Marxists]]

Irish People's Liberation Organisation

2025-10-22T13:19:49Z

2A02:8012:227B:0:4C4:1152:824F:C6C4: Category:Irish People's Liberation Organisation is alrerady a top-level subcategory of Category:Irish republican militant groups

{{Short description|Former Irish Republican paramilitary group}}
{{Use Hiberno-English|date=August 2022}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2023}}
{{Infobox War Faction
| name = Irish People's Liberation Organisation
| native_name =
| war = [[the Troubles]]
| image = iplo flag.png
| ideology = [[Irish republicanism]] [[Left-wing nationalism]] [[Revolutionary socialism]]
| caption = Commemorative flag of the IPLO.
| active = 1986 – May 1992
| split = [[Irish National Liberation Army]]
| leaders = [[Jimmy Brown (Irish republican)|Jimmy Brown]], [[Gerard Steenson]] [[Sammy Ward]] (IPLOBB Leader), [[Martin "Rook" O'Prey|Martin O'Prey]]
| clans = [[Republican Socialist Collective]] (political wing)
| headquarters =
| area = Ireland
| size = 150–200
| predecessor = [[Irish National Liberation Army]]
| successor =
| allies =
| opponents = {{flag decoration|United Kingdom}} United Kingdom
*{{Army|United Kingdom}}
*{{Flagicon image|Force Standard of the RUC.png}} [[Royal Ulster Constabulary]]
[[Ulster loyalism#Paramilitary and vigilante groups|Ulster loyalist paramilitaries]] [[Provisional Irish Republican Army|Provisional IRA]] [[Irish National Liberation Army]]
| battles = [[The Troubles]]
}}
{{Irish republicanism|Militant groups}}
The '''Irish People's Liberation Organisation''' was a small Irish [[Revolutionary socialism|socialist]] [[Irish republicanism|republican]] paramilitary organisation formed in 1986 by disaffected and expelled members of the [[Irish National Liberation Army]] (INLA), whose factions coalesced in the aftermath of the [[Supergrass (informer)|supergrass]] trials. It developed a reputation for intra-republican and sectarian violence as well as criminality, before being forcibly disbanded by the [[Provisional Irish Republican Army]] (IRA) in 1992.

Some of the IPLO's most notable attacks during its short existence were:
*the Orange Cross shooting in which IPLO gunmen killed a member of the [[Red Hand Commando]] and injured an [[Ulster Defence Regiment]] soldier;
* the 1991 Donegall Arms shooting when they fired indiscriminately on a Protestant-owned pub, killing two Protestant civilians and injuring four others;<ref>{{cite web |date=8 February 2021 |title=The Human Face of Conflict: Chronolgical Listing: 1991 |url=https://cain.ulster.ac.uk/victims/humanface/chron/1991.html |access-date=13 May 2025 |website=[[Conflict Archive on the Internet]]}}</ref> and
* the assassination of outspoken loyalist politician and [[Ulster Volunteer Force]] (UVF) member [[George Seawright]] in November 1987.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Melaugh |first=Martin |date=13 November 2024 |title=CAIN: Chronology of the Conflict 1987 |url=https://cain.ulster.ac.uk/othelem/chron/ch87.htm |access-date=13 May 2025 |website=[[Conflict Archive on the Internet]]}}</ref>

On 1 May 1990 the IPLO became a proscribed organisation by the British government.<ref>{{Cite Hansard|title=Northern Ireland (Emergency Provisions) Act 1978 (Amendment) Order 1990|jurisdiction=Parliament of the United Kingdom|house=[[House of Lords]]|date=1 May 1990|volume=518|url=https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/lords/1990/may/01/northern-ireland-emergency-provisions|column=}}</ref> Although officially disbanded, the IPLO retains that classification under the [[Terrorism Act 2000]].<ref>{{cite act |title=Terrorism Act 2000 |title-link=Terrorism Act 2000 |date=2000-07-20 |orig-section=sched. 2 |chapter=Proscribed Organisations |reporter=UK Public General Acts |volume=2000 c. 11 |chapter-url=http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2000/11/schedule/2 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130121085241/http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2000/11/schedule/2 |archive-date=2013-01-21 |url-status=live}}</ref>{{failed verification|date=April 2024|reason=The primary source (Terrorism Act 2000) can say the IPLO is classified in that act, but not whether it is disbanded, or still classified as such elsewhere in the government, or whether such a fact is even meaningful.}}

==Foundation==
The IPLO emerged from a split within the INLA. After the [[1981 Irish hunger strike]], in which three of its members died, the INLA began to break apart. The INLA virtually dissolved as a coherent force in the mid-1980s. Factions associated with [[Belfast]] and [[Dublin]] fell into dispute with each other. When INLA man [[Harry Kirkpatrick]] turned [[supergrass (informer)|supergrass]], he implicated many of his former comrades in various activities and many of them were convicted on his testimony.

Members both inside and out of prison broke away from the INLA and set up the IPLO. Some key players at the outset were Tom McAllister, [[Gerard Steenson]], [[Jimmy Brown (Irish nationalist)|Jimmy Brown]] and [[Martin "Rook" O'Prey]]. Jimmy Brown formed a minor political group, known as the [[Republican Socialist Collective]], which was to act as the political wing of the IPLO.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Irish Nationalist & Irish Republican political groups |url=http://irishconflict.webs.com/nationalistparties.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110818162736/http://irishconflict.webs.com/nationalistparties.htm |archive-date=18 August 2011 |website=irishconflict.webs.com}}</ref>

The IPLO's initial priority was to forcibly disband the [[Irish Republican Socialist Movement]] from which it had split, and most of its early attacks reflected this, being more frequently against former comrades than on the security forces. The feud with the INLA lasted from 1986 to 1987 and resulted in the deaths of 12 people including IPLO leader Gerard Steenson who was shot in March 1987.<ref name="tele">{{Cite news |last=McKittrick |first=David |author-link=David McKittrick |date=22 August 1992 |title=Terrorists' split could erupt into bloody feud: Violence in Northern |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/terrorists-split-could-erupt-into-bloody-feud-violence-in-northern-ireland-1541791.html |access-date=13 May 2025 |work=[[The Independent]]}}</ref>

==Internal feud==
The IPLO was accused of becoming involved in the [[illegal drug trade]], especially in [[ecstasy (drug)|ecstasy]]. Some of its Belfast members were also accused of the prolonged gang rape of a North Down woman in [[Divis Flats]] in 1990.<ref>{{Cite book |last=de Baroid |first=Ciaran |title=Ballymurphy and the Irish War by p. 331 |publisher=[[Pluto Press]] |year=2000 |isbn=9780745315096}}</ref> Many of its recruits had fallen out of favour with the IRA and the portents for its future were not good. [[Sammy Ward]], a low-level IPLO member, broke away from the main body of the organisation with a few supporters when the IPLO were severely depleted and weak in [[Belfast]]. His faction attacked the rest of the IPLO, culminating in the killing of [[Jimmy Brown (Irish republican)|Jimmy Brown]]. A full-scale feud followed between two factions terming themselves "Army Council" (formerly led by Jimmy Brown) and "Belfast Brigade" (led by Ward), which led to the 3000th killing of the Troubles, Hugh McKibben, a 21-year-old "Army Council" man. Brown had been the previous victim when he was shot dead in West Belfast on 18 August 1992.<ref>{{Cite book |last=McDonald |first=Henry |author-link=Henry McDonald (writer) |title=I.N.L.A. - Deadly Divisions |last2=Holland |first2=Jack |author-link2=Jack Holland (writer) |publisher=Poolbeg Press |year=1995 |isbn=9781853712630 |pages=334}}</ref> This feud was described by the IPLO's critics as a lethal squabble over money and drugs.

==Disbandment==
The Provisional IRA – by far the largest armed republican group in Ireland – decided to attack and remove the IPLO, given its involvement in the drug trade and due to increasingly provocative actions by the IPLO towards the Provisional IRA. On Saturday 31 October 1992, in an event that was later dubbed "Night of the Long Knives" by locals in Belfast,<ref>{{Cite book |last=McDonald |first=Henry |author-link=Henry McDonald (writer) |title=I.N.L.A. - Deadly Divisions |last2=Holland |first2=Jack |author-link2=Jack Holland (writer) |publisher=Poolbeg Press |year=1995 |isbn=9781853712630 |pages=342}}</ref> the IRA attacked the two IPLO factions in Belfast, killing the breakaway Belfast Brigade leader [[Sammy Ward]] in the Short Strand.<ref>{{Cite book |last=McDonald |first=Henry |author-link=Henry McDonald (writer) |title=I.N.L.A. - Deadly Divisions |last2=Holland |first2=Jack |author-link2=Jack Holland (writer) |publisher=Poolbeg Press |year=1995 |isbn=9781853712630 |pages=341}}</ref> There were also raids on pubs and clubs where IPLO members were [[kneecapping|kneecapped]]. On 2 November 1992 the second-in-command of the IPLO Belfast Brigade formally surrendered to the Provisional IRA Belfast Brigade [[adjutant]], which brought an end to the group in Belfast.<ref name="auto8">{{Cite book |last=McDonald |first=Henry |author-link=Henry McDonald (writer) |title=I.N.L.A. - Deadly Divisions |last2=Holland |first2=Jack |author-link2=Jack Holland (writer) |publisher=Poolbeg Press |year=1995 |isbn=9781853712630 |pages=343}}</ref>

Outside Belfast the IRA did not attack any IPLO units and issued statements absolving the IPLO units in [[Derry]], [[Newry]] and [[Armagh]] from any involvement in the drugs trade that was alleged against those in Belfast. In Dublin the IRA reprieved the IPLO Chief of Staff in return for surrendering a small cache of arms held in [[Ballybough]].<ref name="auto8" />

The IPLO also had a presence in [[Strabane]],<ref name="Strabane Chronicle 1992">''Strabane Chronicle'', 21 November 1992.</ref> and in [[Munster]]; like the INLA drawing its support from the [[Cork (city)|Cork]], [[Limerick]], and [[Shannon, County Clare|Shannon]] areas.<ref>''Evening Echo'', 9 December 1987.</ref> Reportedly the group had also established small support bases in Continental Europe including France, Belgium, and the Netherlands.<ref>''Irish Independent'', 12 December 1989.</ref>

==Casualties==
According to the Sutton database of deaths at the [[University of Ulster]]'s [http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/sutton/crosstabs.html CAIN project],<ref> {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160324044004/http://www.cain.ulst.ac.uk/sutton/crosstabs.html |date=24 March 2016 }}</ref> the IPLO was responsible for 22 killings during [[the Troubles]]. Among its victims were twelve civilians, six INLA members, two [[Ulster loyalism|loyalist]] paramilitary figures, a [[Royal Navy]] reservist, and one member of the British security forces, a [[Royal Ulster Constabulary]] constable.

==List of attacks and actions==
===1986===
*'''Autumn''' – Former [[Irish National Liberation Army|INLA]] Volunteers led by [[Jimmy Brown (Irish Republican)|Jimmy Brown]] broke away to form the Irish People's Liberation Army (IPLA) which was later renamed the Irish People's Liberation Organisation (IPLO).<ref>Jack Holland & Henry McDonald, INLA – Deadly Divisions, 1994 p.279</ref> They also set up a small political wing called the [[Republican Socialist Collective]] (RSC).<ref>Jack Holland & Henry McDonald, INLA – Deadly Divisions, 1994</ref>
*'''10 November''' – Off-duty RUC officer Derek Patterson was shot dead by the IPLO on Fitzroy Avenue, off the Ormeau Road, Belfast. Both the IRA and later the INLA tried to claim responsibility.<ref name="ReferenceA">'' Irish Independent'', 1 December 1986</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=CAIN: Victims: Memorials: Search Results Page |url=https://cain.ulster.ac.uk/victims/humanface/alpha/P.html |website=cain.ulster.ac.uk}}</ref>
*'''29 November''' – The IPLO launched a hand grenade attack on [[Queen Street Police Station|Queen Street RUC station]] in Belfast injuring six RUC constables. Several shots were also fired. Responsibility for the attack and the shooting of Constable Patterson was claimed by the "People's Liberation Army" (PLA).<ref>Jack Holland & Henry McDonald, INLA – Deadly Divisions, 1994, p. 279</ref><ref name="ReferenceA"/>
*'''21 December''' – Thomas McCartan (31), a member of the INLA, was shot dead by the Irish People's Liberation Organisation in [[Andersonstown]]. This was the first killing in an INLA-IPLO feud that was to last until March 1987.<ref>{{Cite web |title=CAIN: Sutton Index of Deaths |url=https://cain.ulster.ac.uk/cgi-bin/dyndeaths.pl?querytype=date&day=21&month=12&year=1986 |website=cain.ulster.ac.uk}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=CAIN: Chronology of the Conflict 1986 |url=https://cain.ulster.ac.uk/othelem/chron/ch86.htm |website=cain.ulster.ac.uk}}</ref> The IPLO used the alias "INLA Army Council" to claim responsibility for actions carried out during the feud.<ref>Jack Holland & Henry McDonald, INLA – Deadly Divisions, 1994, p. 285-286</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://apnews.com/article/c41f3bce52f17371fc136159fad30202|title=Guerrilla Group Feud Heats Up with Two More Killings|agency=Associated Press News}}</ref> However, in the case of McCartan callers representing the Irish People's Liberation Organisation claimed responsibility for the killing shortly afterwards, accusing him of "abusing the republican struggle for his own selfish ends."<ref>'' Belfast Telegraph'', 23 December 1986</ref>

===1987===
*'''20 January''' – [[Rosnaree Hotel shooting]]: The IPLO killed two leading members of the INLA ([[Thomas "Ta" Power]] and John O'Reilly), they shot them inside a hotel in [[Drogheda]], County Louth.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Sutton |first=Malcolm |title=CAIN: Sutton Index of Deaths - 20 January 1987 |url=https://cain.ulster.ac.uk/cgi-bin/dyndeaths.pl?querytype=date&day=20&month=01&year=1987 |access-date=13 May 2025 |website=[[Conflict Archive on the Internet]]}}</ref>
*'''28 January''' – The IPLO tried to kill INLA member Emmanuel Gargan in the Lower Ormeau, Belfast. He was wounded in another attempt two days later.<ref name="McDonald, Torc 1994">INLA – Deadly Divisions by Holland and McDonald, Torc (1994)</ref>
*'''18 February''' – The IPLO shot dead INLA Volunteer Michael Kearney near his home in [[Ballymurphy, Belfast]].<ref name="auto">{{Cite web |last=Sutton |first=Malcolm |title=CAIN: Sutton Index of Deaths - 1987 |url=https://cain.ulster.ac.uk/sutton/chron/1987.html |access-date=13 May 2025 |website=[[Conflict Archive on the Internet]]}}</ref>
*'''10 March''' – The IPLO shot and wounded the chairman of the [[Irish Republican Socialist Party|IRSP]] Kevin "Bap" McQuillan at his home in Springfield Park, Belfast. His brother was also wounded in the attack.<ref name="McDonald, Torc 1994"/>
*'''21 March''' – The IPLO shot dead INLA Volunteer Emmanuel Gargan on the Ormeau Road in Belfast.<ref name="auto" /><ref>{{Cite news |last1=Clines |first1=Francis X. |date=29 March 1987 |title=A Dozen Die as Ulster's Rebels Feud |newspaper=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1987/03/29/world/a-dozen-die-as-ulster-s-rebels-feud.html }}</ref>
*'''22 March''' – The IPLO shot dead INLA Volunteer Kevin Duffy. His body was found in the playground of St. Brigid's School, Nursery Road, Armagh. This was the last killing of the IPLO/INLA feud.<ref name="auto" />
*'''19 November''' – [[George Seawright]] a Loyalist politician known for his anti-Catholic views was shot by the IPLO on the [[Shankill Road]], Belfast. He died of his wounds two weeks later on December 3. After his death it was also revealed he was a UVF member.<ref>{{Cite news |date=23 August 2006 |title='Burn Catholics' man was in UVF |url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/5279276.stm |access-date=6 July 2023 |work=[[BBC News]]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Sutton |first=Malcolm |title=CAIN: Sutton Index of Deaths - 3 December 1987 |url=https://cain.ulster.ac.uk/cgi-bin/dyndeaths.pl?querytype=date&day=3&month=12&year=1987 |access-date=13 May 2025 |website=[[Conflict Archive on the Internet]]}}</ref>
*'''19 November''' – The IPLO shot and injured a woodwork instructor in County Armagh. The IPLO claimed the man was a member of the UDR but he had no ties to the security forces.<ref name="McDonald, Torc 1994"/><ref>''[[Fortnight Magazine]]'', Issue 258, p. 17. Fortnight Publications, 1988.</ref>

===1988===
*'''5 January''' – The IPLO shot and wounded a Catholic man in Armagh.<ref>''[[Fortnight Magazine]]'', Issue 260, p. 18-19. Fortnight Publications, 1988.</ref>
*'''3 March''' – The IPLO fired several shots and lobbed a grenade at an observation sangar at Musgrave Street RUC base in Belfast city centre.<ref>''Belfast Telegraph'' 9 March 1988.</ref><ref name="bt27k88"/>
*'''10 March''' – The IPLO shot and wounded a guard during the robbery of a [[cash-in-transit]] van at a bank in Bangor, County Down. A woman in the vicinity was also hit in the leg.<ref name="bt27k88">''Belfast Telegraph'' 27 July 1988.</ref>
*'''9 August''' – The IPLO sent a {{convert|5|lb|abbr=on}} parcel bomb to the home of Unionist politician [[William McCrea, Baron McCrea of Magherafelt and Cookstown|William McCrea]] but the bomb was defused.<ref>{{Cite book |last=McDonald |first=Henry |author-link=Henry McDonald (writer) |title=INLA – Deadly Divisions |last2=Holland |first2=Jack |author-link2=Jack Holland (writer) |publisher=Poolbeg Press |year=1995 |isbn=9781853712630 |pages=310}}</ref><ref name="Sunday Tribune 1988">''Sunday Tribune'', 14 August 1988.</ref>
*'''9 August''' – The IPLO lured a Loyalist to a house on Cliftonville Road, Belfast where an assassination attempt failed when a gun jammed.<ref name="Sunday Tribune 1988"/>
*'''11 August''' – The IPLO mounted two gun attacks against the RUC and British Army in Belfast; attacking a joint patrol in Grosvenor Road and exchanging fire with British soldiers at Divis Flats.<ref name="Sunday Tribune 1988"/>
*'''12 August''' – IPLO members loaded a van with explosives and [[Proxy bomb|forced its owner]] to drive to the Belfast law courts, where the bomb exploded.<ref name="auto1">{{Cite book |last=McDonald |first=Henry |author-link=Henry McDonald (writer) |title=INLA – Deadly Divisions |last2=Holland |first2=Jack |author-link2=Jack Holland (writer) |publisher=Poolbeg Press |year=1995 |isbn=9781853712630 |pages=367}}</ref><ref>''Aberdeen Press and Journal'', 13 August 1988.</ref>
*'''12 August''' – The IPLO carried out an attempted bombing of a home it claimed was used as a meeting place by Loyalist paramilitaries in East Belfast. The device was defused.<ref name="Sunday Tribune 1988"/><ref name="Holland, Jack 1994">Holland, Jack; McDonald, Henry (1994). INLA Deadly Divisions.</ref>
*'''19 August''' – A parcel bomb was sent to the home of Unionist MP [[Ken Maginnis]].<ref name="auto1" />
*'''7 September''' – UDA Volunteer William Quee was shot and killed by the IPLO at his shop in Oldpark Road, Belfast.<ref name="auto4">{{Cite web |last=Sutton |first=Malcolm |title=CAIN: Sutton Index of Deaths - 1988 |url=https://cain.ulster.ac.uk/sutton/chron/1988.html |access-date=13 May 2025 |website=[[Conflict Archive on the Internet]]}}</ref>
*'''3 October''' – The IPLO shot dead Henry McNamee at his girlfriend's home at Lenadoon Avenue, Belfast, afterwards claiming he was an informer. Apparently, the IPLO had instructed McNamee to pose as an informer in 1987 so the IPLO could kill his RUC handler. This planned ambush failed to materialise and McNamee moved to London.<ref name="auto4" /><ref>''Sunday Tribune'', 9 October 1988.</ref>
*'''22 December''' – The IPLO hijacked a taxi in West Belfast and forced the driver to carry a device consisting of two full gas cylinders wrapped in detonating cord to an unknown target. However, the taxi ran out of petrol and stopped in North Queen Street in north Belfast, and the British Army carried out a controlled explosion on the vehicle. The RUC claimed a massive fireball would have erupted had the device detonated.<ref>''Belfast Telegraph'', 23 December 1988.</ref>

===1989===
*'''16 February''' – Orange Cross Social Club shooting: The IPLO attacked a pub on the predominantly Protestant Shankill Road, Belfast, killing [[Red Hand Commando]] (RHC) member Stephen McRea<ref name="auto7">{{Cite web |last=Sutton |first=Malcolm |title=CAIN: Sutton Index of Deaths - 1989 |url=https://cain.ulster.ac.uk/sutton/chron/1989.html |access-date=13 May 2025 |website=[[Conflict Archive on the Internet]]}}</ref> and injuring several people. A gunman opened fire indiscriminately with an [[Uzi]] submachine gun. Authors [[Jack Holland (writer)|Jack Holland]] and [[Henry McDonald (writer)|Henry McDonald]] alleged the Belfast leadership of the [[Ulster Volunteer Force]] (UVF) were holding a meeting upstairs at the time of the attack.<ref>{{Cite book |last=McDonald |first=Henry |author-link=Henry McDonald (writer) |title=INLA – Deadly Divisions |last2=Holland |first2=Jack |author-link2=Jack Holland (writer) |publisher=Poolbeg Press |year=1995 |isbn=9781853712630 |pages=314}}</ref>
*'''2 March''' – An IPLO member, Declan Malone, shot dead Patrick Boland in a freelance [[contract killing]] in the O'Malley Park estate in [[Southill, Limerick]]. He had been hired by the victim's wife, Majella Keane, whom Patrick had been violently abusive towards.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Galvin|first=Anthony|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8WlUZzWrTCMC|title=Blood on the Streets A Murderous History of Limerick|date=2012-04-11|publisher=Mainstream Publishing|isbn=9781780577074}}</ref>
*'''27 May''' – A joint RUC/British Army patrol stopped and searched three IPLO members in the Daisy Hill area of Newry. One of them drew a handgun and pointed it at soldiers, but ran. A search of the vicinity recovered two handguns and paramilitary clothing.<ref name="BT8j19"/>
*'''1 June''' – The IPLO shot and wounded an RUC officer and a British soldier in a gun attack on a joint RUC/British Army patrol in the Derrybeg estate, Newry.<ref>''Belfast Telegraph'', 1 June 1989.</ref><ref name="BT8j19">''Belfast Telegraph'', 8 June 1989.</ref>
*'''22 August''' – The IPLO claimed responsibility for several incendiary devices planted in business premises in Belfast; one bomb was defused inside a department store in Belfast city centre and two more were found and defused in a large DIY shop in Newtownabbey. A fourth device found at the terminal building of the city's airport caused disruption to flights.<ref>''Irish Independent'', 24 August 1989.</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=23 August 1989 |others=Reported by Chris Moore |title=Inside Ulster |url=https://discover.bbcrewind.co.uk/asset/5ea00c339cf8e1002756769d |access-date=13 May 2025 |publisher=BBC Rewind}}</ref>
*'''3 September''' – The IPLO reportedly issued a death threat to dole fraud investigators in the [[Ballyfermot]] area of Dublin. The ''[[Sunday World]]'' received the threat from a caller using a recognised codeword who claimed "As an army of the working classes we see it as our duty to protect them from these dole-snoops".<ref>''Irish Press'', 4 September 1989.</ref> The IPLO later denied issuing the threat.<ref>''Irish Press'', 7 September 1989.</ref>
*'''6 November''' – The IPLO shot dead a Catholic civilian, Robbert Burns, near his home in Milltown Avenue, County Antrim, mistaken for a security forces member.<ref name="auto7" />
*'''10 December''' – Two IPLO members shot and injured a [[Gendarmerie (Belgium)|gendarme]] in the Belgian port of Antwerp and escaped on foot. They had been intending to smuggle a small consignment of arms aboard a freighter bound for Ireland. Afterwards, Dutch police carried out raids on four homes and arrested an Irish citizen in Amsterdam.<ref>'' Irish Independent'', 13 December 1989</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=11 December 1989 |others=Reported by Justin Webb |title=Belfast Man Arrested in Holland |url=https://www.rte.ie/archives/collections/news/21373941-belfast-man-arrested-in-holland/ |access-date=13 May 2025 |website=RTÉ Archives}}</ref>

===1990===
*'''14 March''' – The IPLO attempted to assassinate a prominent Loyalist at Derrycoole Way, Newtownabbey, on the outskirts of Belfast. After he failed to appear, the IPLO members opened fire on RUC officers and UDR soldiers on Roden Street as they returned to West Belfast.<ref>''Sunday Life'', 18 March 1990.</ref>
*'''20 March''' – William McClure a Protestant civilian was shot dead at his Belfast home by an IPLO hit squad. The IPLO claimed he was a member of the UVF.<ref name="auto6">{{Cite web |last=Sutton |first=Malcolm |title=CAIN: Sutton Index of Deaths - 1990 |url=https://cain.ulster.ac.uk/sutton/chron/1990.html |access-date=13 May 2025 |website=[[Conflict Archive on the Internet]]}}</ref><ref>''Dundee Courier'', 16 July 1990.</ref> McClure was convicted in 1974 for possession of a firearm but it was unknown if he still retained links with loyalist paramilitaries.<ref>''Irish Press'', 21 March 1990.</ref>
*'''28 March''' – The IPLO became a proscribed organization in Northern Ireland.<ref>{{Cite legislation UK|type=si|year=1990|number=758|si=The Northern Ireland (Emergency Provisions) Act 1978 (Amendment) Order 1990|accessdate=13 May 2025|date=29 March 1990}}</ref>
*'''18 April''' – An IPLO unit was ambushed by undercover British soldiers as they tried to attack a local RUC man in South Armagh. A gun battle ensued and the commander of the IPLO unit and former [[Provisional IRA]] volunteer Martin Corrigan was killed.<ref>{{Cite book |last=McDonald |first=Henry |author-link=Henry McDonald (writer) |title=INLA – Deadly Divisions |last2=Holland |first2=Jack |author-link2=Jack Holland (writer) |publisher=Poolbeg Press |year=1995 |pages=315}}</ref>
*'''20 May''' – Two IPLO members, one of them armed, forced their way into a home on Faith Avenue in the [[East Wall]] area of Dublin. The IPLO claimed the owner, who was absent, had sexually abused children in the area and they had been intending to [[Paramilitary punishment attacks in Northern Ireland|"punish"]] him.<ref>''Sunday Tribune'', 20 October 1991.</ref>
*'''15 July''' – The IPLO shot dead William Sloss a Protestant civilian in his home in South Belfast. A caller to the BBC in Belfast claimed the IPLO shot William Sloss because he was a member of the UVF.<ref name="auto6" /><ref>{{Cite web |date=15 July 1990 |others=Reported by Brendan Wright |title=William Sloss Killed By IPLO |url=https://www.rte.ie/archives/collections/news/21432713-william-sloss-killed-by-iplo/ |access-date=13 May 2025 |website=RTÉ Archives}}</ref> Allegedly, Sloss was a drug dealer who had fallen out with Loyalist paramilitaries, who helped arrange his killing.<ref name="Sunday Tribune 1991">''Sunday Tribune'', 13 October 1991.</ref>
*'''1 August''' – An IPLO unit tried to kill leading Loyalist "Chuck" Berry but failed.<ref name="auto1" />
*'''11 September''' – The IPLO was behind the shooting and injuring of a Protestant civilian on the Shankill Road, Belfast.<ref name="auto1" />
*'''18 December''' – An IPLO bomb exploded as a man opened the bonnet of his car in the Low Road area of Lisburn, throwing him several metres away but he survived with "superficial" injuries. A former UDR soldier was believed to be the intended target.<ref>''Ulster Star'', 21 December 1990.</ref><ref>''Ulster Star'', 4 January 1991.</ref>

===1991===
*'''1 January''' – The IPLO shot and wounded an RUC Reserve officer in [[Dundrod]], County Antrim.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Heathwood |first=Peter |date=4 March 2025 |title=CAIN: Peter Heathwood Collection of Television Programmes – 1991 |url=https://cain.ulster.ac.uk/heathwood/static/1991.html |access-date=31 August 2020 |website=[[Conflict Archive on the Internet]]}}</ref>
*'''20 April''' – An IPLO Volunteer lost three fingers after a botched hand grenade attack on [[Bessbrook]] RUC station.<ref name="auto2">{{Cite book |last=McDonald |first=Henry |author-link=Henry McDonald (writer) |title=INLA – Deadly Divisions, 1994, p. |last2=Holland |first2=Jack |author-link2=Jack Holland (writer) |publisher=Poolbeg Press |year=1995 |isbn=9781853712630 |pages=368}}</ref>
*'''5 June''' – An IPLO hit team shot and injured Eddie McIlwaine, a former [[Ulster Defence Regiment]] soldier and member of the notorious [[Shankill Butchers]], while he was driving a taxi at Lower North Street in Belfast city centre. The IPLO unit chased the taxi and fired several more shots, hitting McIlwaine twice more and slightly injuring a 15-year old-girl.<ref name="auto2" /><ref>''Irish Independent'', 1 February 1992.</ref>
*'''18 July''' – The IPLO shot dead an off duty member of the [[Royal Naval Reserve]] (John McMaster) at his shop in Church Lane, Belfast.<ref name="auto5">{{Cite web |last=Sutton |first=Malcolm |title=CAIN: Sutton Index of Deaths - 1991 |url=https://cain.ulster.ac.uk/sutton/chron/1991.html |access-date=13 May 2025 |website=[[Conflict Archive on the Internet]]}}</ref>
*'''16 August''': The UVF shot dead IPLO member Martin "Rook" O'Prey at his home on Ardmoulin Terrace, Belfast. His seven-year-old daughter was injured in the attack.<ref name="auto5" /><ref>''[[Fortnight Magazine]]'', Issue 298, p. 26-29. Fortnight Publications, 1991.</ref>
*'''3 September''' – The IPLO shot and wounded a Protestant civilian from a passing car in North Belfast.<ref name="auto2" /><ref name="Fortnight Publications 1991">''[[Fortnight Magazine]]'', Issue 299, p. 30-31. Fortnight Publications, 1991.</ref>
*'''13 September''' – The IPLO wounded a man working at his car repair shop in north Belfast.<ref name="Fortnight Publications 1991"/>
*'''7 October''' – An IPLO unit fired several shots into the Ivy Bar in the Donegall Pass area of Belfast with a submachine gun, injuring 2 people.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Lister |first1=David |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aKzB6O2Nli8C |title=Mad Dog: The Rise and Fall of Johnny Adair and 'C Company' |last2=Jordan |first2=Hugh |date=19 April 2013 |publisher=Random House |isbn=9781780578163 |via=Google Books}}</ref><ref name="auto2" /><ref name="Sunday Tribune 1991"/>
*'''10 October''' – An IPLO active service unit carried out a gun attack on the Diamond Jubilee Bar on the Shankill Road Belfast, killing a UDA Volunteer Harry Ward and injuring several people. Their target was a well-known Loyalist but he wasn't present.<ref name="auto5" /><ref>{{Cite web |title=CAIN: Sutton Index of Deaths |url=https://cain.ulster.ac.uk/cgi-bin/dyndeaths.pl?querytype=date&day=10&month=10&year=1991 |website=cain.ulster.ac.uk}}</ref><ref name="auto2" /><ref name="Sunday Tribune 1991"/>
*'''10 October''' – The IPLO shot and injured a Protestant civilian at his home in Newry.<ref name="auto5" /><ref name="Sunday Tribune 1991"/>
*'''12 October''' – The IPLO claimed responsibility for bombing the Derby House bar on Stewartstown Road, west Belfast. Armed men had entered the premises at midday and left a device; the explosion caused severe damage. Afterwards the IPLO warned that pubs that did not prevent drug abuse on their premises would be targeted.<ref>''Sunday Life'', 13 October 1991.</ref>
*'''24 October''' – A Protestant man escaped four IPLO gunmen who had forcibly entered his home off Cavehill Road in North Belfast. He leapt through a window, breaking his arm.<ref>''Dundee Courier'', 26 October 1991.</ref>
*'''12 December''' – The IPLO carried out a firebombing attack on a veterinary surgery in Newry claiming it served the British Army. The allegation was denied.<ref name="auto2" />
*'''15 December''' – The IPLO shot dead a Catholic civilian Colm Mahon at his workplace on Little Donegal Street, Belfast.<ref name="auto5" /> [[Christopher "Crip" McWilliams]] was convicted of this murder, in 1997 after McWilliams had rejoined the INLA he shot dead [[Loyalist Volunteer Force|LVF]] leader [[Billy Wright (loyalist)|Billy Wright]] inside the [[Maze Prison]].
*'''20 December''' – An IPLO member (Patrick McDonald) was shot dead in his salon at St Aidan's Park Road, Marino, Dublin. Although the IPLO promised retaliation, the perpetrator and motive was unclear.<ref>''Sunday Tribune'', 22 December 1991.</ref>
*'''21 December''' – The IPLO shot dead two Protestant civilians (Barry Watson and Thomas Gorman) during a gun attack carried out on the Donegall Arms pub in Roden Street, Village, Belfast.<ref name="auto5" /><ref>{{Cite web |title=CAIN: Sutton Index of Deaths |url=https://cain.ulster.ac.uk/cgi-bin/dyndeaths.pl?querytype=date&day=21&month=12&year=1991 |website=cain.ulster.ac.uk}}</ref> Witnesses said the gunmen shouted "[[Orange Order|Orange]] bastards, Orange bastards!" during the attack.<ref>Jack Holland & Henry McDonald. ''INLA: Deadly Divisions''. Poolbeg, 2010. p.320</ref>

===1992===
*'''17 February''' – The IPLO shot dead a Protestant civilian at his workplace in Upper Crumlin Road, Belfast.<ref name="auto3">{{Cite web |last=Sutton |first=Malcolm |title=CAIN: Sutton Index of Deaths - 1992 |url=https://cain.ulster.ac.uk/sutton/chron/1992.html |access-date=13 May 2025 |website=[[Conflict Archive on the Internet]]}}</ref>
*'''12 April''' – The IPLO issued a death threat to Irish soccer player [[David O'Leary]] and the [[Football Association of Ireland]] declaring him and his family "legitimate target[s]". The IPLO threat alleged O'Leary, then living in England, was a supporter of the [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative Party]]. After widespread condemnation the IPLO denied sending the threat although the letter contained a recognised codeword.<ref>''Irish Independent'', 13 April 1992.</ref>
*'''5 May''' – The IPLO shot dead a Protestant civilian during a gun attack on the Mount Inn pub, North Queen Street, Belfast. The IPLO claimed the attack was revenge for the killing of one of their own Volunteers six days earlier by the [[Ulster Volunteer Force]].<ref name="auto3" />
*'''June''' – An armed IPLO unit led by Sammy Ward burst into a pub in Belfast on the [[Antrim Road]] and read out a statement which said in part "the IPLO would not take Provo aggression lying down". Several members of the IRA were drinking in the pub at the time. This led to further tension between the IPLO and the IRA.<ref>{{Cite book |last=McDonald |first=Henry |author-link=Henry McDonald (writer) |title=I.N.L.A - Deadly Divisions |last2=Holland |first2=Jack |author-link2=Jack Holland (writer) |publisher=Poolbeg Press |year=2016 |isbn=978-1-84223-438-9}}</ref>
*'''19 June''' – The IPLO claimed responsibility for a gun attack on a Protestant man driving along the Upper Crumlin Road, Belfast. His [[Common-law marriage|common law wife]] and daughter were also in the vehicle but there were no reported injuries.<ref>''Sunday World'', 21 June 1992.</ref>
*'''19 July''' – The IPLO in Dublin issued a threat to "seek out and kill" anyone from the [[Republic of Ireland|Republic]] who joined the new British Army [[Royal Irish Regiment (1992)|Royal Irish Regiment]]<ref>''Sunday Times'', 5 July 1992.</ref>
*'''8 August''' – The IPLO hurled an explosive device at an occupied house in Sherbrook Terrace in the Shankill area of Belfast. The bomb exploded outside damaging several houses. The IPLO claimed it was retaliation for a UDA shooting and grenade attack on Catholic homes off the Grosvenor Road nine days earlier.<ref>{{Cite web |date=8 August 1992 |others=Reported by Tim Cooke |title=Inside Ulster |url=https://discover.bbcrewind.co.uk/asset/5f1024a9ef9bd1002945c526 |access-date=13 May 2025 |website=BBC Rewind}}</ref>
*'''18 August''' – Leading IPLO member Jimmy Brown was shot dead by the IPLO Belfast Brigade. This was the start of an internal IPLO feud. Dozens of shootings, robberies, and takeovers of clubs and bars occurred in the following weeks.<ref name="auto3" /><ref>''Sunday Tribune'', 13 September 1992.</ref>
*'''20 August''' – The IPLO shot and seriously injured a security guard at his home in Bessbrook, County Armagh.<ref name="auto2" /> He was targeted because the firm he worked for had been guarding Newry courthouse, damaged in an IRA bomb attack.<ref>''Irish Independent'', 21 June 1992.</ref>
*'''25 August''' – A leading member of the IPLO Belfast Brigade was shot and injured in an ambush by the IPLO Army Council faction in the Springfield Road area of Belfast.<ref>''[[Fortnight Magazine]]'', Issue 311, p. 24-25. Fortnight Publications, 1992.</ref>
*'''27 August''' – Hugh McKibben, a member of the IPLO Army Council, was shot dead at the Lámh Dhearg GAA social club on the outskirts of Belfast. His was killed by the IPLO Belfast Brigade during an internal IPLO feud. Two other men were wounded in the attack.<ref name="auto2" /><ref name="auto3" />
*'''11 September''' – Michael Macklin was shot dead in the Whiterock area of west Belfast. A Dublin-based IPLO faction accused him of being involved in the 'Belfast Brigade of the IPLO' a breakaway faction responsible for the killing of both Hugh McKibben and [[Jimmy Brown (Irish republican)|Jimmy Brown]].<ref name="auto2" />
*'''18 September''' – A man was shot and injured when gunmen opened fire on his car in the Divis Flats area of Belfast. Related to an internal IPLO feud.<ref>''Evening Herald'', 19 September 1992.</ref>
*'''20 September''' – The IPLO firebombed a pub in Belfast City Centre called "The Waterfront". The pub was firebombed because it failed to pay money to the IPLO through extortion. This was one of the last actions carried out by the paramilitary group during a six-year campaign.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Bombed out shell of "The Waterfront" pub|Belfast MS Ditto| MS Ditto|... |url=https://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/video/bombed-out-shell-of-the-waterfront-pubbelfast-ditto-news-footage/721791601 |website=Getty Images|date=10 May 2017 }}</ref>
*'''30 September''' – A former IRA prisoner was shot and wounded when gunmen, believed to IPLO members, fired into the living room of his home in the New Lodge area of Belfast. Related to an internal IPLO feud.<ref>''Sunday Tribune'', 4 October 1992.</ref>
*'''24 October''' – The IPLO claimed responsibility for a shooting attack on British security forces outside Newry RUC station. At least one round struck a security barrier and three young women in a car narrowly escaped injury. A parked civilian vehicle was also hit.<ref>''Evening Herald'', 29 October 1992.</ref>
*'''21 November''' – Armed paramilitaries claiming to be from the IPLO in two separate incidents hijacked taxis in Strabane, County Tyrone, and forced the drivers to abandon hoax bombs at Mourne Bridge and [[Sion Mills]] RUC station. At both sites, nearby residents were evacuated while the British Army determined the car bombs were hoaxes. The INLA and IRA denied involvement; both the IRSP and [[Sinn Féin]] accused the group of being involved in criminality in the Strabane area.<ref name="Strabane Chronicle 1992"/>

===1997===
*'''21 April''' – A group of men claiming to be from the IPLO carried out a robbery on a [[Credit Union]] in [[Newry]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=CAIN: Chronology of the Conflict 1997 |url=https://cain.ulster.ac.uk/othelem/chron/ch97.htm |website=cain.ulster.ac.uk}}</ref>

==See also ==
*[[Darkley killings]]
*[[Droppin Well bombing]]
*[[South Armagh Republican Action Force]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{IPLO/RSC}}
{{INLA/IRSP}}
{{The Troubles|state=collapsed}}
{{IRAs}}

[[Category:Irish People's Liberation Organisation| ]]
[[Category:1986 establishments in Northern Ireland]]
[[Category:1992 disestablishments in Northern Ireland]]
[[Category:Timelines of military actions and engagements during the Troubles (Northern Ireland)|Irish People's Liberation Organisation]]

Continuity Irish Republican Army

2025-10-22T13:14:26Z

2A02:8012:227B:0:4C4:1152:824F:C6C4: Category:Continuity Irish Republican Army is alrerady a top-level subcategory of Category:Irish republican militant groups

{{Short description|Irish republican paramilitary group split from the Provisional IRA in 1986}}
{{Use British English|date=October 2013}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2020}}
{{Infobox war faction
|name=Continuity Irish Republican Army
|war={{indented plainlist|
*[[The Troubles]] (1986–1998)
*[[Dissident Irish republican campaign]]}}
|image=Ciraderry.jpg
|caption=CIRA propaganda video
|allegiance = [[Irish Republic]]{{refn|group=n|Irish republicans do not recognise any of the Irish states since 1922, but declare their allegiance to the extinct Republic of 1919–21.<ref name=allegiance>Richard English, ''Armed Struggle: The History of the IRA'' ({{ISBN|0-330-49388-4}}), p. 106.</ref>}}
|active=1986–present<ref>{{cite web|first=Connla |last=Young |url=https://www.irishnews.com/news/2018/01/26/news/republican-groups-have-no-plans-o-nh-ceasefire-style-ceasefire-1242024/ |title=Republican groups have no plans for ÓNH-style ceasefire |work=The Irish News |date= 26 January 2018|access-date=2018-09-22}}</ref>
|ideology={{indented plainlist|
*[[Physical force Irish republicanism]]
*[[Irish nationalism]]
*[[Irish republican legitimism]]
*[[Dissident republican]]ism
*[[Éire Nua]]}}
|clans={{indented plainlist|
*[[Republican Sinn Féin]] (political wing)
*[[Fianna Éireann]] (youth wing)
*[[Cumann na mBan]] (women's wing)}}
|leader1_title=Leadership
|leader1_name=Continuity Army Council
|area={{indented plainlist|
*[[Northern Ireland]] (mainly)
*[[Republic of Ireland]]}}
|size=About 50 (as of {{nowrap|July 2012)<ref>{{cite web|url=https://2009-2017.state.gov/j/ct/rls/crt/2011/195553.htm|title=Chapter 6. Foreign Terrorist Organizations|website=U.S. Department of State}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.start.umd.edu/tops/|title=Terrorist Organization Profiles |publisher=START – National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism|website=start.umd.edu}}</ref>}}
|predecessor=[[Provisional Irish Republican Army]]
|allies=[[New Irish Republican Army|NIRA]]<ref>{{cite web|title=New IRA and Continuity IRA discuss joint attacks|url=https://www.thetimes.com/world/ireland-world/article/new-ira-and-continuity-ira-discuss-joint-attacks-wpzlfwl62|work=[[The Times]]|access-date=15 August 2021|date=10 August 2021}}</ref>
|opponents={{indented plainlist|
*[[Government of the United Kingdom|British Government]]
*[[British Army]]
*[[Police Service of Northern Ireland]]
*[[Garda Síochána|An Garda Síochána]]
*[[Irish Army]]}}
|designated_as_terror_group_by={{plainlist|
*[[United Kingdom]]
*[[United States]]
*[[New Zealand]]}}
|native_name=''Óglaigh na hÉireann''
|split=
|native_name_lang=gd
}}
{{Irish republicanism|Militant groups}}
The '''Continuity Irish Republican Army''' ('''Continuity IRA''' or '''CIRA'''), styling itself as the '''Irish Republican Army''' ({{Langx|ga|[[Óglaigh na hÉireann]]}}<ref>{{Cite book | last = O'Leary | first = Brendan | author-link = Brendan O'Leary | title = A Treatise on Northern Ireland, Volume I: Colonialism | publisher = [[Oxford University Press]] | year = 2019 | page = 64 | isbn = 978-0199243341}}</ref>), is an [[Irish republicanism|Irish republican]] paramilitary group that aims to bring about a [[united Ireland]]. It claims to be a direct continuation of the original [[Irish Republican Army (1917–22)|Irish Republican Army]] and the national army of the [[Irish Republic]] that was [[Proclamation of the Irish Republic|proclaimed in 1916]]. It emerged from a split in the [[Provisional Irish Republican Army|Provisional IRA]] in 1986 but did not become active until the Provisional IRA [[ceasefire]] of 1994. It is an illegal organisation in the Republic of Ireland and is designated a [[List of designated terrorist organizations|terrorist organisation]] in the United Kingdom,<ref>{{cite act |title=Terrorism Act 2000 |title-link=Terrorism Act 2000 |date=2000-07-20 |reporter=UK Public General Acts |volume=2000 c. 11 |chapter=Schedule 2: Proscribed Organisations |chapter-url=http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2000/11/schedule/2 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130121085241/http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2000/11/schedule/2 |archive-date=2013-01-21 |url-status=live}}</ref> New Zealand<ref name="NZ-r1373-terrorlist">{{cite web |url=http://www.police.govt.nz/advice/personal-community/counterterrorism/designated-entities/lists-associated-with-resolution-1373 |title=Lists associated with Resolution 1373 |publisher=New Zealand Police |date=20 July 2014 |access-date=16 August 2014|quote=7/13/2004: Continuity Irish Republican Army (CIRA)}}</ref> and the United States.<ref>{{cite web |title=Foreign Terrorist Organizations |url=https://2009-2017.state.gov/j/ct/rls/other/des/123085.htm |access-date=9 February 2017 |publisher=[[United States Department of State]]}}</ref> It has links with the political party [[Republican Sinn Féin]] (RSF).<ref>{{Cite news |last=Lowe |first=Josh |date=2016-02-08 |title=Continuity IRA: Four things you need to know about the group claiming responsibility for the Dublin weigh-in murder |url=https://www.newsweek.com/dublin-shooting-continuity-ira-424166 |access-date=2018-10-12 |work=Newsweek |language=en}}</ref>

Since 1994, the CIRA has [[Timeline of Continuity Irish Republican Army actions|waged a campaign]] in Northern Ireland against the [[British Army]] and the [[Police Service of Northern Ireland]] (PSNI), formerly the [[Royal Ulster Constabulary]]. This is part of a [[Dissident Irish republican campaign|wider campaign]] against the British security forces by [[dissident republican]] paramilitaries. It has targeted the security forces in gun attacks and bombings, as well as with grenades, [[Barrack buster|mortars]] and [[Rocket-propelled grenade|rockets]]. The CIRA has also carried out bombings with the goal of causing economic harm and/or disruption, as well as many punishment attacks on alleged criminals.

To date, it has been responsible for the [[Murder of Stephen Carroll|death of one PSNI officer.]]<ref>{{Cite web |title=Draft List of Deaths Related to the Conflict in 2009 |url=https://cain.ulster.ac.uk/issues/violence/deaths2009draft.htm |access-date=2024-09-29 |website=cain.ulster.ac.uk}}</ref> The CIRA was smaller and less active than the now-defunct [[Real IRA]], and there have been a number of splits within the organisation since the mid-2000s.

==Origins==
The Continuity IRA has its origins in a split in the Provisional IRA. In September 1986, the Provisional IRA held a General Army Convention (GAC), the organisation's supreme decision-making body. It was the first GAC in 16 years. The meeting, which like all such meetings was secret, was convened to discuss among other resolutions, the articles of the Provisional IRA constitution which dealt with [[abstentionism]], specifically its opposition to the taking of seats in [[Dáil Éireann]] (the parliament of the [[Republic of Ireland]]).<ref name=":0" /> The GAC passed motions (by the necessary two-thirds majority) allowing members of the Provisional IRA to discuss and debate the taking of parliamentary seats, and the removal of the ban on members of the organisation from supporting any successful republican candidate who took their seat in Dáil Éireann.<ref>{{cite web| title = A Chronology of the Conflict – 1986 | url = http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/othelem/chron/ch86.htm | publisher = [[CAIN]] | access-date = 17 May 2007}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Bowyer Bell |first=J. |title=IRA: Tactics & Targets |publisher=Poolbeg |year=1998 |isbn=978-1853712579 |edition=3rd |quote=Essentially since the spring of 1972, the crucial player in the armed struggle has been the Provisional IRA—now the IRA}}</ref>

The Provisional IRA convention delegates opposed to the change in the constitution claimed that the convention was [[gerrymander]]ed "by the creation of new IRA organisational structures for the convention, including the combinations of Sligo-Roscommon-Longford and Wicklow-Wexford-Waterford."<ref>Robert White, Ruairí Ó Brádaigh, The Life and Politics of an Irish Revolutionary, 2006, p. 309.</ref> The only IRA body that supported this viewpoint was the outgoing IRA Executive. Those members of the outgoing Executive who opposed the change comprised a [[quorum]]. They met, dismissed those in favour of the change, and set up a new Executive. They contacted [[Tom Maguire]], who was a commander in the old IRA and had supported the Provisionals against the [[Official IRA]] (see [[Irish republican legitimatism]]), and asked him for support. Maguire had also been contacted by supporters of [[Gerry Adams]], then president of [[Sinn Féin]], and a supporter of the change in the Provisional IRA constitution.

Maguire rejected Adams' supporters, supported the IRA Executive members opposed to the change, and named the new organisers the Continuity Army Council.<ref name=":1" /> In a 1986 statement, he rejected "the legitimacy of an Army Council styling itself the Council of the Irish Republican Army which lends support to any person or organisation styling itself as Sinn Féin and prepared to enter the partition parliament of Leinster House." In 1987, Maguire described the "Continuity Executive" as the "lawful Executive of the Irish Republican Army."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Ó Brádaigh |first=Ruairí |title=Dílseacht: The Story of Comdt. General Tom Maguire and the Second (All-Ireland) Dáil |publisher=Irish Freedom Press |year=1997 |isbn=9780951856796 |pages=65–66}}</ref>

==Campaign==
{{Main|Chronology of Continuity Irish Republican Army actions}}

Initially, the Continuity IRA did not reveal its existence, either in the form of press statements or paramilitary activity. Although the [[Garda Síochána]] had suspicions that the organisation existed, they were unsure of its name, labelling it the "Irish National Republican Army".<ref>{{cite web|title=The Continuity IRA |author=David Kerr |url=http://www.ulsternation.org.uk/continuity_ira.htm |publisher=Ulster Nation |year=1997 |access-date=16 March 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070505211142/http://www.ulsternation.org.uk/continuity_ira.htm |archive-date= 5 May 2007}}</ref> On 21 January 1994, on the 75th anniversary of the First Dáil Éireann, a group of men in paramilitary dress offered a "final salute" to Tom Maguire by firing over his grave. A public statement headed "Irish Republican Publicity Bureau" signed "B Ó Ruairc, ''Rúnaí'' [Secretary]" identifying the firing party as "[[Volunteer (Irish republican)|Volunteers]] of Óglaigh na hÉireann-the Irish Republican Army", and two accompanying photos were published in ''[[Saoirse Irish Freedom]]''.<ref>[https://indianamemory.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/IrishNews/id/2732 "Final Salute to Comdt-General Tom Maguire"], Saoirse, Feabhra-February 1994, p. 2; see also, Robert White, Ruairi O Bradaigh, the Life and Politics of an Irish Revolutionary. 2006. Indiana University Press, pp. 323–24.</ref> Garda [[Special Detective Unit|Special Branch]] detectives raided the headquarters of Republican Sinn Féin at Arran Quay, Dublin, two days after the graveside volley, seizing files and questioning staff.<ref>"Files Seized in Raid", ''Irish Independent'', 25 January 1994.</ref> In February 1994 it was reported that in previous months Gardaí had found arms dumps along the [[Cooley Peninsula]] in County Louth that did not belong to the Provisional IRA, and forensics tests determined had been used for firing practice recently.<ref>IRA splinter group threat to ceasefire", ''Irish Independent'', 5 February 1994.</ref>

It was only after the Provisional IRA declared a ceasefire in 1994 that the Continuity IRA became active, announcing its intention to continue the campaign against British rule. The CIRA continues to oppose the [[Good Friday Agreement]] and, unlike the Provisional IRA (and the Real IRA in 1998), the CIRA has not announced a ceasefire or agreed to participate in weapons decommissioning—nor is there any evidence that it will. In the 18th [[Independent Monitoring Commission]]'s report, the RIRA, the CIRA and the [[Irish National Liberation Army]] (INLA) were deemed a potential future threat. The CIRA was labelled "active, dangerous and committed and... capable of a greater level of violent and other crime". Like the RIRA and RIRA splinter group [[Real IRA/ONH|Óglaigh na hÉireann]], it too sought funds for expansion. It is also known to have worked with the INLA.{{Citation needed|date=February 2021}}

The CIRA has been involved in a number of bombing and shooting incidents. Targets of the CIRA have included the [[British Armed Forces|British military]], the Northern Ireland police (both the [[Royal Ulster Constabulary]] and its successor the [[Police Service of Northern Ireland]]). Since the [[Good Friday Agreement]] in 1998 the CIRA, along with other paramilitaries opposing the ceasefire, have been involved with a countless number of punishment shootings and beatings. By 2005 the CIRA was believed to be an established presence on the island of Great Britain with the capability of launching attacks.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Bright |first=Martin |last2=McDonald |first2=Henry |date=2005-03-20 |title=Irish terror groups 'to hit London' |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2005/mar/20/northernireland.northernireland |access-date=2024-09-29 |work=The Observer |publisher=The Guardian}}</ref> A bomb defused in Dublin in December 2005 was believed to have been the work of the CIRA.<ref>{{Cite news |date=2005-12-09 |title=Continuity IRA link suspected in M50 alert |url=https://www.rte.ie/news/2005/1209/70638-m50/ |access-date=2024-09-29 |work=RTÉ News}}</ref> In February 2006, the [[Independent Monitoring Commission]] (IMC) blamed the CIRA for planting four bombs in Northern Ireland during the final quarter of 2005, as well as several [[bomb threat|hoax bomb warnings]].<ref name="IMC8">{{Cite report |last=Independent Monitoring Commission |title=Eighth report of the Independent Monitoring Commission |pages=13–14 |date=1 February 2006 |publisher=The Stationery Office |url=http://www.independentmonitoringcommission.org/documents/uploads/8th%20IMC%20Report.pdf|access-date=6 May 2007 |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070615142944/https://www.independentmonitoringcommission.org/documents/uploads/8th%20IMC%20Report.pdf |archive-date=15 June 2007}}</ref> The IMC also blamed the CIRA for the killings of two former CIRA members in Belfast, who had stolen CIRA weapons and established a rival organisation.
<ref name="IMC17">{{Cite report |last=Independent Monitoring Commission |title=Seventeenth report of the Independent Monitoring Commission |pages=9–10 |date=7 November 2007 |publisher=The Stationery Office |url=http://www.independentmonitoringcommission.org/documents/uploads/17th_IMC.pdf|access-date=10 February 2008 |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080227081924/http://www.independentmonitoringcommission.org/documents/uploads/17th_IMC.pdf |archive-date=27 February 2008 }}</ref>
The CIRA continued to be active in both planning and undertaking attacks on the PSNI. The IMC said they tried to lure police into ambushes, while they have also taken to [[stoning]] and using [[petrol bomb]]s. In addition, other assaults, robbery, [[tiger kidnapping]], [[extortion]], [[fuel laundering]] and [[smuggling]] were undertaken by the group. The CIRA also actively took part in recruiting and training members, including disgruntled former Provisional IRA members. As a result of this continued activity the IMC said the group remained "a very serious threat".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.independentmonitoringcommission.org/documents/uploads/Twentieth%20Report.pdf |title=Twentieth Report of the Independent Monitoring Commission |publisher=[[The Stationery Office]] |date=10 November 2008 |access-date=28 December 2008 |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081218015532/http://www.independentmonitoringcommission.org/documents/uploads/Twentieth%20Report.pdf |archive-date=18 December 2008}}</ref>

On 10 March 2009 the CIRA claimed responsibility for the fatal shooting of a PSNI officer in [[Craigavon (planned town)|Craigavon]], [[County Armagh]]—the first police fatality in Northern Ireland since 1998. The officer was fatally shot by a sniper as he and a colleague investigated "suspicious activity" at a house nearby when a window was smashed by youths causing the occupant to phone the police. The PSNI officers responded to the emergency call, giving a CIRA sniper the chance to shoot and kill officer Stephen Carroll.<ref>{{cite news| title = Continuity IRA shot dead officer | url = https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/7934426.stm | work = BBC News | date = 10 March 2009 | access-date = 10 March 2009 | location=London}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=2009-03-10 |title=Two men held over PSNI murder |url=https://www.rte.ie/news/2009/0310/craigavon.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090311135830/http://www.rte.ie/news/2009/0310/craigavon.html |archive-date=2009-03-11 |access-date=2024-09-29 |work=RTÉ News}}</ref> Carroll was killed two days after the Real IRA's [[2009 Massereene Barracks shooting]] at [[Massereene Barracks]] in Antrim. In a press interview with [[Republican Sinn Féin]] some days later, regarded by some to be the political wing of the Continuity IRA, Richard Walsh described the attacks as "acts of war".<ref>{{cite news | title = Northern Ireland killings were an act of war, says hardline republican group | author = Henry McDonald | author-link = Henry McDonald (writer) | url = https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2009/mar/26/northern-ireland-killings-terrorism | newspaper = [[The Guardian]] | date = 26 March 2009 | access-date = 22 April 2020}}</ref>

In 2013, the Continuity IRA's 'South Down Brigade' threatened a [[Irish Travellers|Traveller]] family in Newry and published a statement in the local newspaper.{{citation needed|date=November 2020}} There were negotiations with community representatives and the CIRA announced the threat was lifted.{{citation needed|date=November 2020}} It was believed the threat was issued after a Traveller feud which resulted in a pipe bomb attack in Bessbrook, near Newry.<ref>{{Cite news |last=McKenna |first=Micheal |date=2013-07-05 |title=MP demands end to ‘CIRA attacks’ on Travellers |url=https://armaghi.com/news/mp-demands-end-to-cira-attacks-on-travellers/6644 |access-date=2024-09-29 |work=Armagh I}}</ref> The Continuity IRA is believed to be strongest in the [[County Fermanagh]] – North [[County Armagh]] area (Craigavon, Armagh and Lurgan).{{citation needed|date=November 2020}} It is believed to be behind a number of attacks such as pipe bombings, rocket attacks, gun attacks, and the PSNI claimed it orchestrated riots a number of times to lure police officers into areas such as Kilwilkie in Lurgan and Drumbeg in Craigavon in order to attack them.{{citation needed|date=November 2020}} It also claimed the group orchestrated a riot during a security alert in Lurgan. The alert turned out to be a hoax.<ref name="theguardian.com">{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/continuity-ira|title=Continuity IRA|work=The Guardian|access-date=30 January 2015}}</ref>{{failed verification|date=December 2019}}

On Easter 2016, the Continuity IRA marched in paramilitary uniforms through North Lurgan, Co Armagh, without any hindrance from the PSNI who monitored the parade from a police helicopter.<ref>{{Cite news |last=McDonald |first=Henry |date=2016-05-05 |title=Fifteen men arrested in Northern Ireland after paramilitary funeral |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/may/05/fourteen-men-arrested-in-northern-ireland-after-paramilitary-funeral |access-date=2024-09-29 |work=The Guardian}}</ref>

In July and August 2019 the CIRA carried out attempted bomb attacks on the PSNI in Craigavon, County Armagh and Wattlebridge, County Fermanagh.<ref>{{Cite news |date=22 August 2019 |title=Fermanagh bomb attack 'carried out by Continuity IRA' |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-49441699 |access-date=2024-09-29 |work=BBC News}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=2019-07-29 |title=Continuity IRA behind bomb targeting police in Craigavon |url=https://www.irishnews.com/news/northernirelandnews/2019/07/29/news/continuity-ira-behind-bomb-targeting-police-in-craigavon-1672325/ |access-date=2024-09-29 |work=The Irish News}}</ref>

On 5 February 2020, [[Brexit Day bomb plot|a bomb]] planted by the CIRA was found by the PSNI in a lorry in Lurgan. The CIRA believed the lorry was going to be put on a North Channel ferry to Scotland in January 2020.

==Claim to legitimacy==
{{Main|Irish republican legitimism}} Similar to the claim put forward by the Provisional IRA after its split from the [[Official IRA]] in 1969, the Continuity IRA claims to be the legitimate continuation of the original [[Irish Republican Army (1917–22)|Irish Republican Army]] or ''Óglaigh na hÉireann''.<ref>{{cite book | last = van Engeland | first = Anisseh | title = From Terrorism to Politics (Ethics and Global Politics) | publisher = [[Ashgate Publishing]] | year = 2008 | page = 55 | isbn = 978-0-7546-4990-8}}</ref> This argument is based on the view that the surviving anti-[[Anglo-Irish Treaty|Treaty]] members of the [[Second Dáil]] delegated their "authority" to the [[IRA Army Council]] in 1938. As further justification for this claim, [[Tom Maguire]], one of those anti-Treaty members of the Second Dáil, issued a statement in favour of the Continuity IRA, just as he had done in 1969 in favour of the Provisionals. [[J. Bowyer Bell]], in his ''The Irish Troubles'', describes Maguire's opinion in 1986: "abstentionism was a basic tenet of republicanism, a moral issue of principle. Abstentionism gave the movement legitimacy, the right to wage war, to speak for a Republic all but established in the hearts of the people".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bowyer Bell |first=J. |title=The Secret Army, The IRA |publisher=Poolbeg |year=1997 |isbn=978-1560009016 |edition=3rd |pages=575}}</ref> Maguire's stature was such that a delegation from Gerry Adams sought his support in 1986, but was rejected.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=White |first=Robert W. |title=Ruairí Ó Brádaigh: The Life and Politics of an Irish Revolutionary |publisher=Indiana University Press |year=2006 |isbn=9780253347084 |pages=310}}</ref>

==Relationship to other organisations==
These changes within the IRA were accompanied by changes on the political side and at the 1986 [[Sinn Féin]] Ard Fheis (party conference), which followed the IRA Convention, the party's policy of [[abstentionism]], which forbade Sinn Féin elected representatives from taking seats in the [[Oireachtas]], the parliament of the Republic, was dropped. On 2 November, the 628 delegates present cast their votes, the result being 429 to 161. The traditionalists, having lost at both conventions, walked out of the Mansion House, met that evening at the West County Hotel, and reformed as [[Republican Sinn Féin]] (RSF).<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Bowyer Bell |first=J |title=The Secret Army: The IRA |publisher=Poolbeg |year=1997 |isbn=978-1560009016 |edition=3rd}}</ref>

According to a report in the ''Cork Examiner'', the Continuity IRA's first chief of staff was [[Dáithí Ó Conaill]],<ref name="agdooe">{{Cite news |date=2000-07-02 |title=CIRA bomb adds to growing crisis in the peace process |url=https://archives.tcm.ie/irishexaminer/2000/02/07/current/opinionpage_9.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070509104341/http://archives.tcm.ie/irishexaminer/2000/02/07/current/opinionpage_9.htm |archive-date=2007-05-09 |access-date=2024-09-29 |work=Irish Examiner}}</ref> who also served as the first chairman of RSF from 1986 to 1987. The Continuity IRA and RSF perceive themselves as forming a "true" [[Republican Movement (Ireland)|Republican Movement]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Wolfe Tone Commemoration 2005 at Bodenstown |url=https://www.rsf.ie/boden05.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071118175433/http://www.rsf.ie/boden05.htm |archive-date=2007-11-18 |access-date=2024-09-29 |website=Republican Sinn Féin}}</ref>

==Structure and status==
The leadership of the Continuity IRA is believed to be based in the provinces of [[Munster]] and [[Ulster]]. It was alleged that its [[List of IRA Chiefs of Staff|chief of staff]] was a [[Limerick]] man and that a number of other key members were from that county, until their expulsion. [[Dáithí Ó Conaill]] was the first chief of staff until 1991.<ref name = "agdooe"/> In 2004 the United States (US) government believed the Continuity IRA consisted of fewer than fifty hardcore activists.<ref>{{cite web| title = Continuity Irish Republican Army (CIRA) | url = http://www.fas.org/irp/world/para/cira.htm | publisher = [[Federation of American Scientists]] | date = 13 July 2004 | access-date = 18 May 2007}}</ref> In 2005, [[Minister for Justice, Home Affairs and Migration|Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform]] [[Michael McDowell (politician)|Michael McDowell]] told [[Dáil Éireann]] that the organisation had a maximum of 150 members.<ref>{{cite web|title=Parliamentary Debates (Official Report – Unrevised) |url=http://debates.oireachtas.ie/DDebate.aspx?F=DAL20050623.xml&Node=H10-1#H10-1 |publisher=Dáil Éireann |date=23 June 2005 |access-date=18 May 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090217045724/http://debates.oireachtas.ie/DDebate.aspx?F=DAL20050623.xml&Node=H10-1 |archive-date=17 February 2009}}</ref>

The CIRA is an illegal organisation under UK (section 11(1) of the [[Terrorism Act 2000]]) and ROI law due to the use of 'IRA' in the group's name, in a situation analogous to that of the [[Real Irish Republican Army]] (RIRA).<ref>{{cite web|title=Statutory Rules and Orders, 1939, No. 162. Unlawful Organisation (Suppression) Order, 1939 |url=http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/ZZSI162Y1939.html |archive-url=https://archive.today/20071025064239/http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/ZZSI162Y1939.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=25 October 2007 |publisher=Irish Statute Book Database |access-date=5 May 2007 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Membership of Real IRA was a terrorism offence |author=Kate O'Hanlon |url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_20050525/ai_n14641324 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071104031948/http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_20050525/ai_n14641324 |url-status=dead |archive-date=4 November 2007 |work=[[The Independent]] |date=25 May 2005 |access-date=3 May 2007 }}</ref> Membership of the organisation is punishable by a sentence of up to ten years imprisonment under UK law.<ref>{{cite web| title = House of Commons Hansard Debates for 30 October 2002 (pt 8) | url = https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200102/cmhansrd/vo021030/debtext/21030-08.htm | publisher = House of Commons | date = 30 October 2002 | access-date = 17 March 2007}}</ref> On 31 May 2001 Dermot Gannon became the first person to be convicted of membership of the CIRA solely on the word of a [[Garda Síochána]] chief superintendent. On 13 July 2004, the US government designated the CIRA as a '[[Foreign Terrorist Organization]]'.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://2001-2009.state.gov/s/ct/rls/fs/37191.htm |title=US Department of State, Office of Counterterrorism Fact sheet 2005 |access-date=23 May 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171117015042/https://2001-2009.state.gov/s/ct/rls/fs/37191.htm |archive-date=17 November 2017 |url-status=dead }}</ref> This made it illegal for Americans to provide material support to the CIRA, requires US financial institutions to block the group's assets and denies alleged CIRA members visas into the US.<ref>{{cite news |title=CIRA added to US terror list |url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/3891791.stm |work=BBC News |date=13 July 2004 |access-date=18 May 2007 |location=London}}</ref>

==External aid and arsenal==
The US government suspects the Continuity IRA of having received funds and arms from supporters in the United States. Security sources in Ireland have expressed the suspicion that, in co-operation with the RIRA, the Continuity IRA may have acquired arms and [[materiel]] from the [[Balkans]]. They also suspect that the Continuity IRA arsenal contains some weapons that were taken from Provisional IRA arms dumps,{{citation needed|date=December 2019}} including a few dozen rifles, machine guns, and pistols; a small amount of the explosive [[Semtex]]; and a few dozen detonators.<ref>{{cite news| title = Decommissioning – how big a task? | url = https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/386434.stm | work = BBC News | date = 5 July 1999 | access-date = 18 May 2007 | location=London}}</ref>

==Internal tension and splits==
[[File:Wall Slogans 21.jpg|thumb|Graffito in [[Dublin]] in support of the Continuity IRA (2004)]]
In 2005, several members of the CIRA, who were serving prison sentences in [[Portlaoise Prison]] for paramilitary activity, left the organisation. Some transferred to the INLA landing of the prison, but the majority of those who left are now independent and on E4 landing. The remaining CIRA prisoners have moved to D Wing. Supporters of the Continuity IRA leadership claim that this resulted from an internal disagreement, which although brought to a conclusion, was followed by some people leaving the organisation anyway. Supporters of the disaffected members established the [[Concerned Group for Republican Prisoners]]. Most of those who had left went back to the CIRA, or dissociated themselves from the CGRP, which is now defunct.

In February 2006, the [[Independent Monitoring Commission]] claimed in a report on paramilitary activity that two groups, styling themselves as "Óglaigh na hÉireann" and "Saoirse na hÉireann", had been formed after a split in the Continuity IRA either in early 2006 or late 2005.<ref name=imc8>{{cite web |url=http://www.independentmonitoringcommission.org/documents/uploads/8th%20IMC%20Report.pdf |title=Eighth Report of the Independent Monitoring Commission |access-date=2007-05-06 |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070615142944/http://www.independentmonitoringcommission.org/documents/uploads/8th%20IMC%20Report.pdf |archive-date=15 June 2007}}, 1 February 2006</ref> The Óglaigh na hÉireann group was responsible for a number of pipe bomb attacks on the PSNI, bomb hoaxes, and robberies, the IMC also claimed the organisation was responsible for the [[Murder of Andrew Burns|killing of Andrew Burns]] on 12 February 2008 and was seeking to recruit former members of the RIRA.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/othelem/organ/oorgan.htm|title=CAIN: Abstracts of Organisations – 'O'|first=Dr Martin|last=Melaugh|website=cain.ulst.ac.uk|access-date=14 November 2017}}</ref> The Saoirse na hÉireann (SNH) group was composed of "disaffected and largely young republicans" and was responsible for a number of bomb hoaxes, two of which took place in September 2006. It was thought to have operated largely in republican areas of Belfast .<ref name=imc8/><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.justice.ie/en/JELR/Pages/8th-IMC-report|title=Eighth Report of the Independent Monitoring Commission|first=The Department of Justice and|last=Equality|website=justice.ie|access-date=14 November 2017}}</ref> The groups had apparently ceased operations by early 2009.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/othelem/organ/docs/frampton10icsr.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221010/http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/othelem/organ/docs/frampton10icsr.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-10 |url-status=live|title=The Return of the Militants: Violent Dissident Republicanism|last=Frampton|first=Martyn|year=2010|publisher=International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence (ICSR)|pages=2–3|access-date=8 February 2011}}</ref>

In 2007, the Continuity IRA was responsible for shooting dead two of its members who had left and attempted to create [[Irish Republican Liberation Army|their own organisation]]. Upon leaving the CIRA, they had allegedly taken a number of guns with them.<ref>{{cite news | url=http://www.nuzhound.com/articles/Sunday_Tribune/arts2007/mar18_Republicans_appalled_murders__SBreen.php | title=Republican community appalled by gruesome murders | date=18 March 2007 | work=Sunday Tribune | access-date=16 July 2014 | author=Breen, Suzanne | location=Dublin | archive-date=25 July 2014 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140725155413/http://www.nuzhound.com/articles/Sunday_Tribune/arts2007/mar18_Republicans_appalled_murders__SBreen.php | url-status=dead }}</ref> The Continuity IRA is believed by Gardaí to have been involved in a number of gangland killings in Dublin and Limerick.

In July 2010, members of a "militant Northern-based faction within the CIRA" claimed to have overthrown the leadership of the organisation. They also claimed that an Army Convention representing "95 per cent of volunteers" had unanimously elected a new 12-member Army Executive, which in turn appointed a new seven-member Army Council. The moves came as a result of dissatisfaction with the southern-based leadership and the apparent winding-down of military operations. A senior source from RSF said: "We would see them [the purported new leadership] as just another splinter group that has broken away."<ref>{{cite news |last=Moriarty |first=Gerry |date=7 July 2010 |title=Militant faction claims it has taken over leadership of CIRA |url=https://www.irishtimes.com/news/militant-faction-claims-it-has-taken-over-leadership-of-cira-1.628385 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101028201145/http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/frontpage/2010/0728/1224275616749.html |archive-date=2010-10-28 |access-date=2024-09-29 |newspaper=The Irish Times}}</ref> This organisation is referred to as the Real CIRA.<ref>{{cite book | last = Horgan | first = John | title = Divided We Stand: The Strategy and Psychology of Ireland's Dissident Terrorists | publisher = [[Oxford University Press]] USA | date = 2013 | pages = 26–27 | isbn = 978-0199772858}}</ref>

In June 2011 CIRA member Liam Kenny was murdered, allegedly by drug dealers, at his home in [[Clondalkin]], West Dublin.<ref>{{cite news |last=Cusack |first=Jim |date=19 June 2011 |title=Gardaí fear retaliation attack after dissident murder |url=http://www.independent.ie/national-news/gardai-fear-retaliation-attack-after-dissident-murder-2800112.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181118184249/https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/gardai-fear-retaliation-attack-after-dissident-murder-26743798.html |archive-date=2018-11-18 |access-date=2024-09-29 |work=Irish Independent}}</ref> On 28 November 2011 an innocent man was mistakenly shot dead in retaliation for the murder of Liam Kenny. Limerick Real IRA volunteer Rose Lynch pleaded guilty to this murder at the [[Special Criminal Court]] and was sentenced to life imprisonment.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.rte.ie/news/2013/0410/380678-rose-lynch-court/|title=Rose Lynch jailed for life over 2011 murder|date=10 April 2013|publisher=Raidió Teilifís Éireann|access-date=30 January 2015}}</ref>

In July 2012 the CIRA announced it had a new leadership after expelling members who had been working against the organisation.<ref>{{cite news |date=26 July 2012 |title=Continuity IRA says it has new leadership in place |url=http://www.rte.ie/news/2012/0726/continuity-ira-says-it-has-new-leadership-in-place.html |access-date=26 July 2012 |work=[[RTÉ News and Current Affairs]] |publisher=RTÉ}}</ref>

In April 2014 a former leading member of the Belfast Continuity IRA who had been expelled from the organisation, Tommy Crossan, was shot dead.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-27137733|title=Tommy Crossan: Paramilitary funeral for murdered dissident republican|work=BBC News|date=24 April 2014 |access-date=30 January 2015}}</ref>

==In popular culture==
The CIRA are depicted in [[RTÉ]]'s TV series crime drama ''[[Love/Hate (TV series)|Love/Hate]]''.<ref>{{Cite news |date=2014-10-13 |title=****SPOILER ALERT**** Ghost of Fran's wife Linda wreaks havoc for Nidge in Love/Hate |url=https://www.independent.ie/entertainment/television/spoiler-alert-ghost-of-frans-wife-linda-wreaks-havoc-for-nidge-in-lovehate/30658912.html |access-date=2024-09-29 |work=Irish Independent}}</ref>

==Notes==
{{Reflist|group=n}}

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

{{CIRA/RSF}}
{{PIRA}}
{{The Troubles|state=collapsed}}
{{IRAs}}

[[Category:Continuity Irish Republican Army| ]]
[[Category:1986 establishments in Ireland]]

Alexandrov Ensemble

2025-10-22T12:02:37Z

2A02:8012:227B:0:4C4:1152:824F:C6C4: Category:Alexandrov Ensemble is already a subcategory of Category:Soviet military personnel and Category:Russian military personnel

{{Short description|Russian army choir}}
{{Redirect|Red Army Choir|the Russian ensemble of the National Guard and Ministry of Internal Affairs|Rosgvardia Academic Song and Dance Ensemble}}
{{pp-move|small=yes}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2024}}
{{Infobox musical artist
| name = A. V. Alexandrov Academic Song and Dance Ensemble of the Russian Army
| image = Chór aleksandrowa i balet 27 października 2009 warszawa.JPG
| landscape = yes
| caption = The Alexandrov Choir with Dance Ensemble, [[Warsaw]] 2009
| alias = {{plainlist|
* Alexandrov Ensemble
* Red Army Choir
* Red Army Song Ensemble of the M. V. Frunze Red Army Central House
* Red-Bannered Red Army Song and Dance Ensemble of the USSR
* A. V. Alexandrov Twice Red-bannered and Red-starred Song and Dance Ensemble of the Soviet Army
* A. V. Alexandrov Twice Red-bannered and Red-starred Academic Song and Dance Ensemble of the Soviet Army
}}
| genre = [[Classical music|Classical]], [[Ethnic Russian music|folk tunes]], [[hymns]], [[Russian opera|operatic arias]], [[popular music]]
| years_active = 1928–present
| website = {{Official URL}}
| current_members = Conductor {{ill|Gennadiy Sachenyuk|ru|Саченюк, Геннадий Ксенафонтович}}
| past_members = Valery Khalilov, and 63 other members
}}

[[File:Chór Aleksandrowa Josif Kobzon Warszawa 2009.JPG|300px|right|thumb|The Alexandrov Ensemble with [[Iosif Kobzon|Joseph Kobzon]] as soloist]]
[[File:Chor Aleksandrowa 2006.jpg|300px|thumb|The Alexandrov Ensemble, [[Bielsko-Biała|Bielsko-Biala]], 2006. Victor Sanin on the left, Dmitry Bykov on the right (soloists)]]
The '''Alexandrov Ensemble''' ({{langx|ru|Ансамбль Александрова|Ansambl' Aleksandrova}}), commonly known as the '''Red Army Choir'''<ref name=rte/> in the West, is an official army choir of the [[Armed Forces of the Russian Federation|Russian armed forces]]. Founded during the [[History of the Soviet Union|Soviet era]], the ensemble consists of a male [[choir]], an [[orchestra]], and a [[dance]] ensemble.

The Ensemble has entertained audiences both in Russia and throughout the world, performing a range of music including [[Ethnic Russian music|folk tunes]], [[hymns]], [[Russian opera|operatic arias]] and [[popular music]]. The group's repertoire has included ''[[The Volga Boatmen's Song]]'', ''[[Katyusha (song)|Katyusha]]'', ''[[Kalinka (1860 song)|Kalinka]]'', and ''[[Ave Maria (musical settings)|Ave Maria]]''.

It is named for its first director, [[Alexander Vasilyevich Alexandrov]] (1883–1946). Its formal name since 1998 has been '''A. V. Alexandrov Academic Song and Dance Ensemble of the Russian Army''' ({{langx|ru|Академи́ческий анса́мбль пе́сни и пля́ски Росси́йской А́рмии и́мени А. В. Алекса́ндрова|Akademíchesky ansámbl′ pésni i plyáski Rossýskoy Ármii ímeni A. V. Aleksándrova}}),<ref name="Aкадемический ансамбль">[http://www.ensemble-aleksandrova.ru Академический ансамбль песни и пляски Российской Армии имени А. В. Александрова] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090803124837/http://www.ensemble-aleksandrova.ru/ |date=3 August 2009 }} (Russian)</ref> shortened to ''Academic Ensemble'' ({{langx|ru|Академи́ческий анса́мбль|Akademíchesky ansámbl′}})<ref name="Aкадемический ансамбль"/> on second reference.

On 25 December 2016, its artistic director, [[Valery Khalilov]], and 63 other members of the Ensemble were killed in the [[2016 Russian Defence Ministry Tupolev Tu-154 crash|Russian Defence Ministry aircraft crash]] of a 1983 [[Tupolev Tu-154]] into the [[Black Sea]] just after takeoff from the southern resort city of [[Sochi]], Russia.<ref name=rte>{{Cite news|url=https://www.rte.ie/news/2016/1227/841362-russia-plane-crash/ |title=Russia grounds all its TU-154 planes after crash |date=2016-12-27 |newspaper=RTE.ie |access-date=2016-12-27}}</ref> The Red Army Choir singers and dancers were en route to Syria to entertain Russian troops there for Orthodox Christmas celebrations.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/27/arts/music/russia-plane-crash-alexandrov-ensemble.html |title=Choir in Plane Crash Projects Russian Pride and Soft Power |last=Woolfe |first=Zachary |date=2016-12-27 |newspaper=The New York Times |issn=0362-4331 |access-date=2016-12-31}}</ref>

==Name==
At the establishment, in 1928, the choir was named '''Red Army Song Ensemble of the M. V. Frunze Red Army Central House''' ({{langx|ru|Анса́мбль красноарме́йской пе́сни Центра́льного до́ма Кра́сной А́рмии и́мени М. В. Фру́нзе|Ansámbl′ krasnoarméyskoy pésni Tsentrál′nogo dóma Krásnoy Ármii ímeni M. V. Frúnze}}). In 1935, it was renamed '''[[Order of the Red Banner|Red-Banner]]ed Red Army Song and Dance Ensemble of the USSR''' ({{langx|ru|Краснознамённый анса́мбль красноарме́йской пе́сни и пля́ски СССР|Krasnozamyónny ansámbl′ krasnoarméyskoy pésni i plyáski SSSR}}).

In 1949 the ensemble was officially named the '''A. V. Alexandrov Twice [[Order of the Red Banner|Red-bannered]] and [[Order of the Red Star|Red-star]]red Song and Dance Ensemble of the Soviet Army''' (Дважды Краснознамённый ордена Красной Звезды ансамбль песни и пляски Советской Армии имени А. В. Александрова {{langx|ru|Два́жды Краснознамённый о́рдена Кра́сной Звезды́ анса́мбль пе́сни и пля́ски Сове́тской А́рмии и́мени А. В. Алекса́ндрова|Dvázhdy Krasnoznamyonny órdena Krásnoy Zvezdý ansámbl′ pésni i plyáski Sovétskoy Ármii ímeni A. V. Aleksándrova}}). In 1978 the word "academic" was added to the title (''A. V. Alexandrov Twice Red-bannered and Red-starred Academic Song and Dance Ensemble of the Soviet Army''). After the [[dissolution of the Soviet Union]], the ensemble received its present name in 1998.

== History ==
===Early years ===
[[File:A B Alexandrov.jpg|left|thumb|Alexander Alexandrov]]
Born into a [[peasant]] family, [[Alexander Vasilyevich Alexandrov]] became the first artistic director of the ensemble, choirmaster, conductor, teacher and the public figure who wrote the music to the [[State Anthem of the Soviet Union]].<ref name="ReferenceB">{{cite web|url=https://translate.google.com/translate?prev=hp&hl=en&js=n&u=http://ensemble-aleksandrova.ru/index.php?id=42&sl=ru&tl=en|title=Google Translate|access-date=25 December 2016}}</ref> He came from a musical background of hymns and [[folk song]]s, could play the [[viola]] and had [[perfect pitch]], so he sang in the church choir and performed at festivals. He was heard singing at the village school by PA Zalivuhin, a soloist in the choir at [[Kazan Cathedral, St. Petersburg]]. Zalivuhin persuaded Alexandrov's parents to let the child go to [[Saint Petersburg]] to learn music. In 1898, the young peasant boy became a pupil of the [[Saint Petersburg Court Chapel]].<ref name="ReferenceB" />

[[File:Kazanskiy.jpg|thumb|right|[[Kazan Cathedral, St. Petersburg]], where it all started. Here A.V. Alexandrov, who would one day create the ensemble, began to learn his trade.]]
There are two recorded histories of the ensemble: possibly separate elements of the same history. The first says that the initiator of the ensemble was Felix Nikolaevich Danilovich, a theatre director. The first director of the ensemble was chosen from three of Moscow's conductors: Danilin, Chesnokov and Alexandrov. Seen in isolation this would signify that A. V. Alexandrov was not the creator of the ensemble. In this version the first troupe is named as follows. Singers: Tkachenko, Zyukov, Samarin, Rozanov, Koltypin, Tolskov, Golyaev, Charov. Dancers: Maximov, Svetlov. Bayanist: Surdin.<ref>Prague National Library</ref>{{Specify |reason=Source not specific enough. |date=December 2016}}

The second version says that the ensemble was formed out of the [[Mikhail Frunze|Frunze]] [[Red Army]] [[Central House of Officers of the Russian Army|Central House]] in 1928. There is also a story that [[Stalin]] then asked Alexandrov to relocate the choir to [[Moscow]].<ref name="ReferenceB" />

====Development====

During [[World War II]], the ensemble gave over 1500 performances at both Soviet fronts, entertaining troops about to go into battle, at gun emplacements, airfields, and in hospitals.<ref name="ReferenceB"/><ref>{{cite web|url=https://translate.google.com/translate?prev=hp&hl=en&js=n&u=http://images.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://www.geraldika.org/images/07_2008/05_15.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.geraldika.org/07_2008_05.htm&usg=__dwRzi06eYz_WskkE8bqLoYJBiAk=&h=250&w=150&sz=19&hl=en&start=4&um=1&tbnid=FNfo8h6ZM5nQJM:&tbnh=111&tbnw=67&prev=/images%253Fq%253D%2525D0%25259F%2525D0%2525BB%2525D0%2525B0%2525CC%252581%2525D1%252585%2525D0%2525B8%2525D0%2525BD%2525D0%2525BE%2526hl%253Den%2526rlz%253D1C1CHMP_en-USGB292GB303%2526sa%253DN%2526um%253D1&sl=ru&tl=en|title=Google Translate|access-date=25 December 2016}}</ref>{{Update after|2020|7|23}}<ref>{{cite web|url=https://translate.google.com/translate?prev=hp&hl=en&js=n&u=http://www.belcanto.ru/alexandrov.html&sl=ru&tl=en|title=Google Translate|access-date=25 December 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://translate.google.com/translate?js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http://dosie.km.ru/file/index.asp?data=15.04.2008%25208:00:00&archive=on&sl=ru&tl=en&history_state0=|title=Google Translate|access-date=25 December 2016}}</ref>{{Update after|2020|7|23}}<ref>{{cite web|url=https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&langpair=ru%7Cen&u=http://www.peoples.ru/art/music/composer/aleksandrov/&prev=/translate_s?hl=en&q=vladimir+gordeev+alexandrov+ensemble&sl=en&tl=ru|title=Google Translate|access-date=25 December 2016}}</ref>

===Under Boris Alexandrovich Alexandrov===
Following the death of Alexander Alexandrov, the ensemble was taken over by his son, [[Boris Alexandrovich Alexandrov]]. Under his leadership, the ensemble gained fame outside the Soviet Union, making extensive tours worldwide. Boris Alexandrov retired in 1987, and was succeeded by [[People's Artist of Russia]] [[Igor Agafonnikov]] the same year,<ref name="ReferenceB"/> with [[Anatoly Maltsev (Conductor)|Anatoly Maltsev]] as the ensemble chief. He retired as the principal conductor in 1994; he died that year and was buried in Moscow at the [[Novodevichy Cemetery]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=ru&u=http://www.warheroes.ru/hero/hero.asp?Hero_id=9142&ei=anbUSbz4H8KTjAeL9_yLDw&sa=X&oi=translate&resnum=5&ct=result&prev=/search?q=%25D0%2591%25D0%25BE%25D1%2580%25D0%25B8%25D1%2581+%25D0%2590%25D0%25BB%25D0%25B5%25D0%25BA%25D1%2581%25D0%25B0%25D0%25BD%25D0%25B4%25D1%2580%25D0%25BE%25D0%25B2%25D0%25B8%25D1%2587+%25D0%2590%25D0%25BB%25D0%25B5%25D0%25BA%25D1%2581%25D0%25B0%25D0%25BD%25D0%25B4%25D1%2580%25D0%25BE%25D0%25B2&hl=en&rlz=1C1CHMP_en-USGB292GB303|title=Google Translate|access-date=25 December 2016}}</ref>

Under B. A. Alexandrov, the ensemble was highly disciplined. Boris's party trick was to leave the stage and allow the ensemble to perform "En Route" alone. Members were positioned so that they could not all watch one orchestral leader, and this appeared to be a trick, but there was no trick at all. [[Leonid Kharitonov (singer)|Leonid Kharitonov]] remembers:
<blockquote>The Ensemble members were so disciplined and experienced that they could feel the rhythm simultaneously and could sing and play together automatically, without the conductor... In Canada during one concert Alexandrov left the Ensemble to perform alone for half an hour.<ref>Information from [[Leonid Kharitonov (singer)|Leonid Kharitonov]], October 2009.</ref>{{Specify |reason=Source not specific enough. |date=December 2016}}</blockquote>

[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-11225-0008, Budapest, II. Weltfestspiele, sowjetische Tanzgruppe.jpg|thumb|right|Alexandrov ensemble dancers, [[Budapest]], 1951]]
Major Vladimir Alexandrov (1910–1978), brother of Boris Alexandrov, also composed for the ensemble.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://translate.google.com/translate_c?hl=en&sl=ja&u=http://www.katch.ne.jp/~alexandrov/disk/disk023.html&prev=/search?q=belyaev+1926-1994&hl=en&rlz=1C1CHMP_en-USGB292GB303&sa=G&usg=ALkJrhgoU3zah3hUCyUgPkuCXcx8QZrnsw|title=Google Translate|access-date=25 December 2016}}</ref> He served as Orchestral Director and Conductor.<ref>Details from booklet supplied with EMI CD Soviet Army Chorus & Band CDC-7-47833-2.</ref> Vladimir Gordeev was the principal conductor on the 1988 UK tour.<ref>Information from Prism VHS video packaging: see [[Alexandrov Ensemble discography]] page.</ref>

====1948 Berlin Peace Concert ====
[[File:A BorisA Berlin1948.jpg|thumb|left|upright|1948 peace concert at Berlin. Photo taken by member of choir from stage, probably using Boris Alexandrov's camera. Boris Alexandrov has posed for this, holding baton still.]]
In 1948 much of Berlin was still ruined after [[World War II]], and the city was divided into four occupation zones, controlled by the [[USSR]], France, the UK and the United States. This was before the [[Berlin Wall]] was built, and it was still possible to travel between zones. An American officer suggested a concert in the [[Gendarmenmarkt]] (in the Soviet zone at the time), and the French zone commander supported the suggestion. The musicians were to be provided by the USSR, and the Alexandrov Ensemble was chosen. A temporary stage was set up in the square, with flowers all along the front. 30,000 people came to stand and watch for three hours. In 1994, towards the end of his life, Boris Alexandrov said:
<blockquote>
"The visit to Germany was unforgettable. It is dominant in the history of the ensemble. It was necessary to make a new creative leap – from wartime military music to postwar relaxing harmony. It was important, and the transition had to be managed on many fronts, including getting the Ensemble back into its original pre-war role, performing the classics and singing folk songs. Before the war the Ensemble had 200 professional singers; following the war it was down to 60."<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20201031123836/https://www.kultura-portal.ru/tree/cultpaper/article.jsp?number=116&rubric_id=1001805&crubric_id=1001806&pub_id=354318%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%BA%D1%82%D0%BE%D1%80+%D0%BD%D0%B8%D0%BA%D0%B8%D1%82%D0%B8%D0%BD+%D0%B0%D0%BD%D1%81%D0%B0%D0%BC%D0%B1%D0%BB%D1%8C+%D0%B0%D0%BB%D0%B5%D0%BA%D1%81%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%B4%D1%80%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%B0&cd=1&hl=ru&ct=clnk&gl=ru The newspaper "Culture": Pastoral on the Ruins, by Anatoly Kompaniets, 2000.] In Russian</ref>
</blockquote>
A previous tour to [[East Germany]] had been cancelled due to the sudden death of Alexander Alexandrov in 1946 in [[Potsdam]], when in his bed was found an annotated copy of [[Beethoven]]'s [[Symphony No. 9 (Beethoven)|Symphony No. 9]], showing that A. Alexandrov had been preparing the final chorus for a performance. Now Boris, his son, was ready to follow his father's plan. The 1948 peace concert was to consist of German opera extracts and Russian folk songs (''Nightingales'', ''Zemlyanka'' and ''Roads''); and after an intervention by the tenor [[Alexandrov Ensemble soloists|Victor Nikitin]], some German folk songs were also included. The people joined in, singing ''[[Heidenröslein]]'', and Nikitin sang [[Kalinka (1860 song)|Kalinka]] three times in a row. The concert was very successful, and very moving.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20201031123836/https://www.kultura-portal.ru/tree/cultpaper/article.jsp?number=116&rubric_id=1001805&crubric_id=1001806&pub_id=354318%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%BA%D1%82%D0%BE%D1%80+%D0%BD%D0%B8%D0%BA%D0%B8%D1%82%D0%B8%D0%BD+%D0%B0%D0%BD%D1%81%D0%B0%D0%BC%D0%B1%D0%BB%D1%8C+%D0%B0%D0%BB%D0%B5%D0%BA%D1%81%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%B4%D1%80%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%B0&cd=1&hl=ru&ct=clnk&gl=ru The newspaper "Culture": Pastoral on the Ruins, by Anatoly Kompaniets, 2000.] In Russian.</ref>
<ref>[https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&langpair=ru|en&u=http://www.kultura-portal.ru/tree/cultpaper/article.jsp%3Fnumber%3D116%26rubric_id%3D1001805%26crubric_id%3D1001806%26pub_id%3D354318&prev=/translate_s%3Fhl%3Den%26q%3D%25D0%2592%25D0%25B8%25D0%25BA%25D1%2582%25D0%25BE%25D1%2580%2B%25D0%259D%25D0%25B8%25D0%25BA%25D0%25B8%25D1%2582%25D0%25B8%25D0%25BD%2B%25D0%2590%25D0%25BB%25D0%25B5%25D0%25BA%25D1%2581%25D0%25B0%25D0%25BD%25D0%25B4%25D1%2580%25D0%25BE%25D0%25B2%26sl%3Den%26tl%3Dru The newspaper "Culture": Pastoral on the Ruins, by Anatoly Kompaniets, 2000.] Translated Russian→English.</ref><ref>[http://rkvvvs.org/files/2008/29_2008.pdf A backup source for Anatoly Kompaniets, "Pastoral over the ruins", p.9] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110727221018/http://rkvvvs.org/files/2008/29_2008.pdf |date=27 July 2011 }} in Russian</ref> A sound recording of the concert was made, and pressed in 1985 under the [[Radio DDR 1]] label. This is listed on the [[Alexandrov Ensemble discography]] page.

However the Berlin Peace Concert did not happen in isolation. It was part of a series of punishing yearly tours to war-torn areas. The main tour season during and just after World War II appears to have run from June to October – perhaps because the large troupe usually had to perform outdoors, to accommodate large audiences. The August 1948 Berlin concert occurred two-thirds of the way through a tour to (20 June to 18 July) [[Prague]], [[Most (city)|Most]], [[Brno]], [[Bratislava]], [[Ostrava]], [[Žilina]] and [[Košice]] in [[Czechoslovakia]]; then apparently without a break (18 July to 10 October) [[Dresden]], [[Weimar]], [[Magdeburg]], [[Stendal]], [[Schwerin]], [[Potsdam]], [[Berlin]], [[Rathenow]], [[Leipzig]], [[Halle (Saale)|Halle]], Lane, [[Erfurt]], [[Chemnitz]], [[Frankfurt an der Oder]] and [[Schwarzenberg, Saxony|Schwarzenberg]] in Germany.<ref>[http://www.ensemble-aleksandrova.ru/index.php?id=40 Alexandrov Ensemble webpage: list of tour dates (links)] In Russian</ref><ref>[http://www.ensemble-aleksandrova.ru/index.php?id=109 Alexandrov Ensemble webpage: list of tour venues 1948.] In Russian</ref>

=== After 1991===
Today, the ensemble is led by [[Honoured Artist of Russia]] [[Vyacheslav Korobko]], who has been leading it since 2003.<ref name="ReferenceB"/>

Until 1969, the standard uniform for the ensemble choir, soloists and orchestra was the tunic and riding breeches. On 1 January 1970, this was changed to dress uniform,<ref>Information from [[Leonid Kharitonov (singer)|Leonid Kharitonov]], who was a member of the Ensemble 1953–1972.</ref>{{Specify |reason=Source not specific enough. |date=December 2016}} and there have been further variations to the dress uniform as used by the ensemble since 1970.{{citation needed|date=December 2016}}

==== Eurovision Song Contest 2009 ====
The choir were the interval act in the first semi-final of [[Eurovision Song Contest 2009]] in Moscow, alongside [[t.A.T.u]] who performed "[[Not Gonna Get Us]]".

==== 2016 plane crash ====
{{Main|2016 Russian Defence Ministry Tupolev Tu-154 crash}}
On 25 December 2016, a Russian Defence Ministry [[Tupolev Tu-154]] carrying 64 members of the Alexandrov Ensemble Choir went down {{convert|1.5|km|mi|abbr=on}} off the coast of [[Sochi]], Russia while en route to [[Latakia]], Syria for a [[Christmas]] celebration with the troops deployed at [[Khmeimim]] military base.{{citation needed|date=December 2020}} The plane crashed with no survivors. Of the 92 passengers and crew on board, 64 were members of the Alexandrov Ensemble.{{Citation needed|date=June 2025}}

After 5 weeks, the choir was reformed anew in time for [[Defender of the Fatherland Day]] celebrations on 18 February 2017.{{citation needed|date=December 2020}} That first concert in weeks marks also the birth of a new era for the Ensemble, with its first international tour following the crash with concerts not just in Russia but also in select European countries. Most of the new members joined through auditions held on 15 and 27 January 2017 by the Ministry of Defense of Russia. Since 7 June 2016, Colonel {{ill|Gennadiy Sachenyuk|ru|Саченюк, Геннадий Ксенафонтович}} became artistic director then main conductor and Head of the Ensemble since 24 March 2017.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://redarmychoir.com/biography|title=redarmychoir.com|website=redarmychoir.com}}</ref>

==== 2018 90th Anniversary ====
On 12 October 2018, the Ensemble celebrated the 90th anniversary of its foundation at a special event at the [[Bolshoi Theatre]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Red Army Choir biography |url=https://redarmychoir.com/biography |website=redarmychoir.com |access-date=8 July 2020}}</ref> Following this event, the leader of the Ensemble Colonel Gennadiy Sachenyuk announced a worldwide tour.<ref>{{cite web |title=One leader and his soloists |url=https://redarmychoir.com/the-conductor#40d26203-97d1-4859-be83-cd96a4d6f37a |website=redarmychoir.com |access-date=8 July 2020}}</ref> The Ensemble performed concerts produced by [[FGL Productions|Thierry Wolf]] in various countries including [[France]], [[Switzerland]], [[Belgium]], [[Serbia]], the [[Czech Republic]] and [[China]].<ref>{{cite news |last1=Campbell |first1=Laura |title=A trip down memory lane to celebrate Red Army Choirs 90th anniversary |url=https://www.thenationalpost.co.uk/a-trip-down-memory-lane-to-celebrate-red-army-choirs-90th-anniversary/ |access-date=8 July 2020 |work=The National Post |date=6 July 2020}}</ref> In December 2019, they celebrated Christmas in Montreal during a week of seven concerts at La Maison Symphonique.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Chenier |first1=Pierre |title=The Red Army Choir in Montreal : A Highly Professional Concert Charged with Emotion |url=https://myscena.org/pierre-chenier/the-red-army-choir-in-montreal-a-highly-professional-concert-charged-with-emotion/ |website=myscena.org |access-date=8 July 2020 |date=6 January 2020}}</ref>

==== 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine ====
Following the ongoing [[Russian invasion of Ukraine (2022–present)|Russian invasion of Ukraine]] on 24 February 2022, the tour Alexandrov Ensemble was supposed to have in the [[Czech Republic]] has been canceled,<ref>{{cite news |url=https://english.radio.cz/famous-russian-army-alexandrov-ensemble-ticket-sales-czech-tour-suspended-8743604 |last=McEnchroe |first=Thomas |title=Famous Russian Army Alexandrov Ensemble ticket sales for Czech tour suspended |newspaper=[[Radio Prague|Radio Prague International]] |date=2 March 2022 |access-date=18 March 2023}}</ref> while individual members of the choir have faced disqualifications from competitions such as [[Operalia]].<ref>{{cite news |url=https://operawire.com/russian-competitor-disqualified-from-operalia/ |last=Salazar |first=Francisco |title=Russian Competitor Disqualified from Operalia |newspaper=OperaWire |date=28 October 2022 |access-date=18 March 2023}}</ref>

== Composition ==
=== Soloists ===
[[File:Leonid Kharitonov 1970s.jpg|thumb|[[Leonid Kharitonov (singer)|Leonid Kharitonov]]]]
{{main|Alexandrov Ensemble soloists}}
Most notable soloists:
*[[Evgeny Belyaev]]
*[[Victor Ivanovich Nikitin]]
*[[Leonid Kharitonov (singer)|Leonid Kharitonov]]
*[[Mark Reizen]]
*[[Georgi Vinogradov (tenor)|Georgi Pavlovich Vinogradov]]
*Vadim Anayev
*Ivan Bukreev
*V. Chetverikov

=== Chorus ===
Current members of the choir are listed here.<ref name="google1">{{cite web |url=https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&langpair=ru%7cen&u=http://www.ensemble-aleksandrova.ru/index.php%3Fid%3D171&prev=/translate_s%3Fhl%3Den%26q%3D%25D0%25AD%25D0%25B4%25D1%2583%25D0%25B0%25D1%2580%25D0%25B4%2B%25D0%259C%25D0%25B0%25D0%25BA%25D1%2581%25D0%25BE%25D0%25B2%25D0%25B8%25D1%2587%2B%25D0%259B%25D0%25B0%25D0%25B1%25D0%25BA%25D0%25BE%25D0%25B2%25D1%2581%25D0%25BA%25D0%25B8%25D0%25B9%26sl%3Den%26tl%3Dru |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110628203912/http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&langpair=ru%7Cen&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ensemble-aleksandrova.ru%2Findex.php%3Fid%3D171&prev=%2Ftranslate_s%3Fhl%3Den&q=%D0%AD%D0%B4%D1%83%D0%B0%D1%80%D0%B4+%D0%9C%D0%B0%D0%BA%D1%81%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%B8%D1%87+%D0%9B%D0%B0%D0%B1%D0%BA%D0%BE%D0%B2%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%B8%D0%B9&sl=en&tl=ru |url-status=dead |archive-date=28 June 2011 |title=Google Translate |access-date=2016-12-25 }}</ref>
The choir consists mainly of vocal sections of [[tenor]], [[baritone]], and [[Bass (vocal range)|bass]]. In some of the pieces they perform, these sections are divided into as many as eight different vocal lines. From the early 1950s until at least 1965 a typical full division (which varied from song to song) was as follows: (1) [[countertenor]]s; (2) first [[tenor]]s; (3) second tenors; (4) [[baritone]]s; (5) first [[bass (voice type)|bass]]; (6) second bass; (7) [[bass (voice type)|basso profundo]]s.<ref>Information from [[Leonid Kharitonov (singer)|Leonid Kharitonov]], who was a choir-member of the Ensemble 1953–1965. This reference is to be updated to an external link in a few days.</ref>

=== Orchestra ===
[[File:Domra-topview.jpg|thumb|right|A Russian [[Domra]]]]
The orchestra, in what became a typical composition for later generations of military ensembles in the Soviet Union, has a mixed composition of Russian traditional instruments and western instruments, including the [[balalaika]], the [[domra]], the [[Bayan (accordion)|bayan]], the [[double bass]], [[woodwind instrument|woodwinds]], [[brass instrument|brass]], and [[percussion instrument|percussion]] instruments. A great guest balalaika player was Boris Stepanovich Feoktistov (Борис Степанович Феоктистов) (1910–1988). In the West his most famous recording is ''[[Kamarinskaya]]'' (1963).<ref>{{cite web |title=CD: EMI: Soviet Army Chorus & Band, CDC-7-47833-2 DIDX-1015, "Kamarinskaya". |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20000229235556/http://www.cd/ |url=http://www.cd/ |archive-date=29 February 2000 |publisher=Argentina.Com}}</ref>
<ref>{{cite web |title=CD: EMI Classics: Red Army Ensemble, 0946-3-92030-2-4, "Kamarinskaya". |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20000229235556/http://www.cd/ |url=http://www.cd/ |archive-date=29 February 2000 |publisher=Argentina.Com}}</ref><ref>{{YouTube|WWfYo0Crihs|Boris Feoktistov playing Karmarinskaya}}</ref>
A. Molostov is the trumpet soloist in "[[Dark Eyes (Russian song)|Dark Eyes]]" in vintage recordings.<ref>{{cite web |title=CD: Silva Classics: The Best of the Red Army Choir, SILKD6034, "Dark Eyes". |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20000229235556/http://www.cd/ |url=http://www.cd/ |archive-date=29 February 2000 |publisher=Argentina.Com}}</ref>
The bayan-player Victor Gridin is a past member of the orchestra.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.accordions.com/index/art/cd_97_12_12.shtml|title=CD Review|access-date=25 December 2016}}</ref>

=== Dancers ===
[[File:Alexandrov Ensemble 16.jpg|thumb|left|Alexandrov Ensemble dancers]]
Among the dances staged by the ensemble are ''Zaparozhtsi Dance'', ''Cossack's Cavalry Dance'', ''Festive March'', ''Dance of the Cossacks'', ''Soldier's Dance'', and ''Sailor's Dance''. Some of these are performed by mixed dancers, while others, such as ''Cossack's Cavalry Dance'', are performed by male dancers only.

<blockquote>
The ballet is under the direction of Lev Nikolaevich Kulikov [[National Artist of Russia]], the main ballet master, and maintains the heights of choreographic art with honour. The priority in its repertoire is taken by the military compositions: ''Matroskaya barynya'', ''Kazachiya cavalry plyaska'', ''Festive march'', ''Invitation to dance'' and others. The ballet performs a lot of Russian folk dances. The classical repertoire contains ''Poloveckie plyasky'' from the opera ''[[Prince Igor]]'' written by [[Alexander Borodin]]. This is from our dance classics, but we always update the dance repertoire. (''Leonid Ivanovich Malev, current Director of the Ensemble, interviewed by'' Russia Beyond the Headlines ''1 Dec 2008'')<ref name="rbth.ru"/>
</blockquote>

[[File:Banduryst Potapenko.jpg|thumb|right|The song ''Bandura'', a duet recorded with soloists [[Alexandrov Ensemble soloists|I. Savchuk]] and [[Alexandrov Ensemble soloists|V. Fedorov]], refers to [[Bandura|this instrument]] (photo ca.1925)]]

=== Current line-up ===
The artistic director was [[Valery Khalilov]] but he, and 63 other members of the Ensemble, were [[2016 Russian Defence Ministry Tupolev Tu-154 crash|killed in an aircraft crash on 25 December 2016]]. The chief [[choreographer]] is [[People's Artist of Russia]] L. Kulikov; the chief administrator is [[Honoured Artist of Russia]] VG Kadin, the [[choreographer]] and coach is the Honoured Artist of Russia V. Ermolin; head dresser is Honoured Worker of Culture A. Kormilitsyn; soloists are VI Shtefutsa and EM Labkovsky; with SV Ivanov, PD Bogachev, VP Maystruk, AA Gvozdetsky, BM Mizyuk: all Honoured Artist of Russia.<ref name="ReferenceB"/>

In the choir are YA Lysenko, Y. Shtrunov, IM Pirogov, IS Sobolev, IF Volkov, OV Filimonov, AN Savitsky, VA Nagorny, VP Kokarev, AA Hristachev, JN Deynekin, VM Bolonenko, VN Antonov, AN Stritenko, AA Toschev: all Honoured Artist of Russia; and VS Buzlov, SP Lapik, VF Orthodox, GU Razgasimov, V. Chekin, MD Mochalina.<ref name="ReferenceB"/>

In the orchestra are AA Mogulkin, Y. Savkin, MG Chervov, PD Shchennikov, NI Diakov, AI Egorov, VM Predelin: all Honoured Artist of Russia. Vocal coaches are [[People's Artist of Russia]], laureate of competitions, MI Glinka and PI Tchaikovsky, Professor KP Lisovsky. The Principal Concertmaster is Honoured Artist of Russia V. Brodsky.<ref name="ReferenceB"/>

In the ballet are GD Pavlyuchenko, IV Konygina, P.U. Khmelnitski: all Honoured Artist of Russia.
In 2019, the Ensemble touring all over the world with famous soloist as Valery Gavva<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://redarmychoir.com/valery-gavva#a665fe74-aeab-4eca-a944-4697d3b36fc8|title = The RED ARMY CHOIR ALEXANDROV}}</ref> or Vadim Ananeev<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://redarmychoir.com/biography|title = The RED ARMY CHOIR ALEXANDROV}}</ref> but also young soloists such as Alexander Kruze or Maxim Maklakov, former soloit of Kraznodar Opera<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHHHnjMyCNs&feature=emb_title|title = – YouTube|via = [[YouTube]]}}</ref> or very young talent such as Sergey Kuznetsov.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KR5wQloVLQA&feature=emb_title|title = Les Choeurs de l'Armée Rouge Alexandrov – en revenant de Berlin (Coming back from Berlin)| date=19 October 2018 |via = [[YouTube]]}}</ref> Under the direction of conductor Gennadiy Sachenyuk<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://redarmychoir.com/the-conductor|title=The Conductor|website=redarmychoir.com|accessdate=22 January 2023}}</ref>

=== Composers and directors ===
==== Directors of the Ensemble and orchestra, and Assistant Conductors ====

* 1928–1946 – Major General [[Alexander Vasilyevich Alexandrov]], [[People's Artist of the Soviet Union]], founding artistic director and conductor of the Ensemble, awarded the [[USSR State Prize|Stalin Prize]], composed the [[State Anthem of the Soviet Union]] and various other songs for the ensemble
* 1946–1987 – Major General [[Boris Alexandrovich Alexandrov]], [[Hero of Socialist Labor]], [[People's Artist of the Soviet Union]], awarded both the [[Lenin Prize]] and the [[USSR State Prize|Stalin Prize]], son of the founder, composer and led the ensemble on a number of national and international engagements
* 1987–1992 – Professor Colonel [[Anatoly Maltsev (Conductor)|Anatoly Maltsev]], People's Artist of Russia, led the Ensemble through the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the armed forces, served as Assistant Conductor until 1987
* 1992–1993 – Colonel [[Igor Germanovich Agafonnikov]] (until 1992 conductor and artistic director for the orchestra, also served as deputy and relief conductor)
* 1993–2002 – Colonel Dmitry Vasilyevich Somov
* 1994–2002 – Colonel [[Victor A. Fedorov]], Choir Master and relief conductor
* 2003–2016 – Colonel [[Leonid Malev]], Honoured Artist and Honoured Cultural Worker, responsible for the choir's renewed international tours including a memorable concert at the Vatican in 2004
* 2008–2012 – Prof. Colonel [[Igor Raevskiy]], People's Artist of Russia, Honoured Artist of Belarus, awarded the State Prize of Czechoslovakia
* 2012–2016, 2017–present – Colonel [[Gennady Ksenafontovich Sachenyuk]], Honoured Cultural Worker of Russia, current artistic director, Principal Conductor and Head of the Ensemble
* 2016 (May–December) – Prof. Lieutenant General [[Valery Khalilov]], People's Artist of Russia, highest-ranking officer to serve as Artistic Director
*Second conductor, Lieutenant Colonel [[Nikolay Kirillov]], People's Artist of Russia, Chief Conductor and assistant director of the ensemble
*Choirmaster- Sergey Sokolov.
*Present days – 13 September 2019, {{ill|Gennadiy Sachenyuk|ru|Саченюк, Геннадий Ксенафонтович}}, nicknamed the Maestro, Conductor and Director of the Ensemble since 2016, was honored with the highest level medal for Russian artist.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://choeurdelarmeerouge.com/ev%C3%A8nement |title = LES CHOEURS DE L'ARMEE ROUGE ALEXANDROV – Thierry Wolf}}</ref>

==== Composers and assistant directors ====
* [[Konstantyn Dankevych|Kostiantyn Dankevych]] (1905–1984): a [[Ukrainian people|Ukrainian]] who was director of Songs and Dance of the Red Army Choir in [[Tbilisi]], and wrote ''Poem of Ukraine''.<ref>This is presumably a different composition from that credited to A. Alexandrov (see [[Alexandrov Ensemble soloists]] page).</ref>
* [[Lev Knipper]] (1898–1974) who composed [[Polyushko Pole]], and [[Viktor Gusev]] (1909–1944) who wrote the lyrics.
* [[Pavlo Virsky]] who was artistic director of the Alexandrov Ensemble dancers from 1942, for many years.
* [[Samuel Pokrass]] (1897–1939) who wrote [[White Army, Black Baron]] or ''Red Army is Strongest''; lyrics by P. Grigoriev.

== The repertoire==
[[File:Vasilij-Stefuca.jpg|thumb|Soloist [[Alexandrov Ensemble soloists#Vasily Ivanovich Shtefutsa|Vasily Shtefutsa]] in [[Prague]], 2010]]
In 2006 and 2007, in [[Moscow]] and in [[Vladikavkaz]], [[Grozny]], the ensemble performed a New Year [[fairy tale]] show for children, ''Ivan the Good, Ivan the Brave'', about a soldier helping to save New Year's Day.<ref name="rbth.ru">{{cite web|url=http://rbth.ru/articles/2008/12/01/011208_ensemble.html|title=Along the main street with an ensemble|date=1 December 2008|work=RBTH|access-date=25 December 2016|archive-date=11 July 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120711105713/http://rbth.ru/articles/2008/12/01/011208_ensemble.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>

In 2008, the 80th anniversary of the ensemble, director [[Leonid Malev]] said:
<blockquote>
Of course everything depends on the repertoire which is quite large – more than two thousand works. Depending on the concert we choose a special repertoire. We have a rule that we try not to break. In any country we sing 2–3 songs in the native language of the people who live there. As a rule it helps to find a rapport with, and the appreciation of, the audience. And for us it is some kind of musical gift, to honour the host country and its people. For instance in Canada when we sang the [[National Anthem of Russia]] people stood up to show respect to our country, and when we finished we sang their country's anthem "[[O Canada]]".

A million people in our country and abroad like songs like "[[Kalinka (1860 song)|Kalinka]]", "Katyusha", "[[Smuglyanka]]" and the other songs of the military years as well as "The Day of the Victory", "[[Dark Eyes (Russian song)|Dark Eyes]]", "Vecherny zvon" and "Podmoskovnye vechera". All these songs are known because of the Alexandrov folk song and dance company and people want to hear these songs at every concert. They are not just part of our history; they are great masterpieces. It is interesting that "[[Svyaschennaya Voyna]]", written by [[Alexander Vasilyevich Alexandrov]] in 1941, helped Soviet soldiers to protect their Motherland and is still popular in [[Slovakia]], [[Poland]] and [[Bulgaria]]. Those audiences listen to it standing up and it touches their hearts and souls.

For our concerts we search for new musical works because you can't live only in the past. But to tell you the truth it's impossible to imagine our concerts without works of Russian and West-European [[classical music]] ([[Beethoven]], [[Bach]], [[Tchaikovsky]] and [[Mussorgsky]]), they are part of human history. But our repertoire contains not only songs of the military years and folk songs, arias from operas, songs of the world and spiritual music but also new songs such as Iliya Reznik's "To Serve Russia", and those written by Eduard Hanka, Kim Breytburg, Sergey Sashin and other modern composers and poets.
—Director Leonid Ivanovich Malev, 1 December 2008
<ref name="rbth.ru" />
</blockquote>

== The Children's Choir School ==
The Alexandrov children's choir school was founded in 2007. Malev said about the school:

<blockquote>
It's not a secret that the more you work with children, the greater their prospect of achievement in society. We approached the Ministry of Defence with an appeal to organize this choir and it was approved. October 1st 2007 was the opening day of the Aleksandrovcy creative school for musical and aesthetic education for children. This became an important event in the year of the Ensemble's 80th anniversary. 
The first night of the boys' Aleksandrovcy Choir on December 26th at the Cadets' Gold Epaulette Ball went like clockwork. After that night they participated in many concerts. The latest was on [[Poklonnaya Hill]] in memory of the [[Beslan school hostage crisis|Beslan tragedy]], as part of City Day on the 3rd and 7th of September. It should be mentioned that we have an excellent director of the school Nina Anatolievna Putilina who puts all her soul into raising this worthy generation.
We do a lot in order to raise the new generation with regard to physical, spiritual and moral health. Here children begin at the beginning of vocal music and literary speaking; they absorb the best practice of their teachers.
The children's choir has become an integral part of the Ensemble's life and takes part in its important concerts. We plan to have tours together.<ref name="rbth.ru" />
</blockquote>

== Films ==
The ensemble under the direction of Boris Alexandrov can be heard singing ''[[It's a Long Way to Tipperary]]'' in the 1981 film ''[[Das Boot]]''. Members of the ensemble are seen performing ''[[The Internationale]]'' in New York's Grand Central Station in Peter Miller's 2000 documentary ''[[The Internationale]]''. Several films have been made of the ensemble's performances: see [[Alexandrov Ensemble discography]].

== Awards for the ensemble ==
* For global recognition of high art: The Global Team Award
* From the French Academy of Records, for the best record: Gold Disk (1961)
* From the French company Chant Du Monde, for record sales: Gold disk (1964)
* Order of the Mongolian Combat Merit (1964)
* Czechoslovak [[Order of the Red Star]] (1965)
* From the Dutch company N.O.K, for record sales: Gold disk (1974)
* Two awards of the [[Order of the Red Banner]]
* The honorary title of academy (1979)<ref name="ReferenceB"/>

== See also ==
* [[Alexandrov Ensemble choir]]
* [[Alexandrov Ensemble soloists]]
* [[Alexandrov Ensemble discography]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==

{{Commons category}}
* {{Official website}}
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQmfZ1JygMw Tribute to the lost members of the Ensemble by former soloist Leonid Kharitonov, 26 December 2016] In Russian with English subtitles
* [http://rbth.ru/articles/2008/12/01/011208_ensemble.html Russia Beyond the Headlines: Interview with Leonid Malev 2008] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120711105713/http://rbth.ru/articles/2008/12/01/011208_ensemble.html |date=11 July 2012 }}

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Alexandrov Ensemble| ]]
[[Category:Musical groups established in 1928]]
[[Category:EMI Classics and Virgin Classics artists]]
[[Category:1928 establishments in the Soviet Union]]
[[Category:Soviet Army]]
[[Category:Russian choirs]]
[[Category:Soviet performing ensembles]]
[[Category:Russian dance groups]]
[[Category:Russian military bands]]
[[Category:Russian male singers]]
[[Category:Music of the Soviet Union]]
[[Category:Soviet singers]]
[[Category:Military choirs]]