Irish Republican Army (1922–1969)

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The Irish Republican Army (IRA; Irish: Óglaigh na hÉireann, lit. 'warriors of Ireland') was an Irish republican paramilitary organisation that carried on a number of violent campaigns between 1922 and 1969, in pursuit of a 32-county Irish republic. It arose from a split in the original IRA over the signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty in December 1921, and was known during the ensuing Civil War as the Anti-Treaty IRA or the "Irregulars". It split in 1969 into the Provisional IRA and Official IRA. The Civil War ended with anti-Treaty forces dumping arms, and over the following years, membership fell to fewer than 2,000. The IRA moved to the left in the early 1930s, under the leadership of Moss Twomey and later Seán MacBride. It swung to the right from 1938 under the leadership of Seán Russell; it had contact with the Abwehr, and Russell travelled to Nazi Germany, dying suddenly on the journey back to Ireland. From 1939 the IRA carried on the S-Plan, a bombing campaign in Britain which included...

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