Irish National Liberation Army

Irish National Liberation Army (Arm Saoirse Náisiúnta na hÉireann)
Participant in The Troubles
The Starry Plough is often used to represent the INLA, and other Irish republican socialist groups.
Active	December 1974 – August 1998
Leaders	Seamus Costello Ronnie Bunting Dominic McGlinchey Hugh Torney Gino Gallagher
Area of operations	Ireland and England
Originated as	Official Irish Republican Army
Opponents	United Kingdom

The Irish National Liberation Army (Irish: Arm Saoirse Náisiúnta na hÉireann) or INLA is an Irish republican socialist paramilitary group that was formed on 8 December 1974. Its goal is to remove Northern Ireland from the United Kingdom and create a united Ireland.

Sharing a common Marxist ideology with its political wing, the Irish Republican Socialist Party (IRSP), it enjoyed its peak of influence in the late 1970s and early 1980s. In its earliest days, the INLA was known as the People's Liberation Army (PLA). During the PLA period, the group's purpose was primarily to protect IRSP members from attacks.

After a twenty-four year campaign, the INLA declared a ceasefire on 22 August 1998.^[1] In August 1999 it stated that "There is no political or moral argument to justify a resumption of the campaign".^[2] In October 2009 the INLA formally vowed to pursue its aims through peaceful political means.^[3]

The INLA is an illegal organisation in both the United Kingdom^[4] and the Republic of Ireland.^[5]

History

Foundation

The founders of the INLA were Seamus Costello and other activists who had left or been forced out of the Official IRA in the wake of the OIRA's 1972 ceasefire and the increasingly reformist approach of Official Sinn Féin. Costello espoused a mixture of traditional Republican militarism and Marxist-oriented politics. Shortly after it was founded, the INLA came under attack from their former comrades in the OIRA, who wanted to destroy the new grouping before it could get off the ground.

On 20 February 1975, Hugh Ferguson, an INLA member and an IRSP branch chairperson, was the first person to be killed in the feud. One of the first military operations of the INLA was the killing of Billy McMillen, a leading OIRA member in Belfast and this was followed by several more assassinations on both sides, the most prominent victim being Seamus Costello, who was shot dead on the North Strand Road in Dublin on 6 October 1977. Costello's death was a severe blow to the INLA, as he was their most able political and military leader. It has also recently been claimed by some in the Republican Socialist Movement that one of their members killed in 1975, Brendan McNamee, was actually killed by Provisional Irish Republican Army members. The Officials had denied involvement at the time of the killing and had instead blamed it on the Provisionals (Provos) who also denied involvement.^[6] This has not however been confirmed by the IRSP officially.

Armed campaign

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the INLA developed a modest organisation in the north of Ireland, particularly based around Divis Flats in West Belfast, which as a result became colloquially known as, "the planet of the Irps" (a reference to the Irish Republican Socialist Party and the film Planet of the Apes). During this period, the INLA competed with the Provisional Irish Republican Army for members, both groups attacking the British Army and the Royal Ulster Constabulary. The first action to bring the INLA to international notice was its assassination on 30 March 1979 of Airey Neave, one of Margaret Thatcher’s closest political supporters.

The INLA lost another of its founding leadership in 1980, when Ronnie Bunting, a Protestant Republican, was assassinated at his home by the Ulster Freedom Fighters. Noel Lyttle, who was also a Protestant member of INLA, was killed in the same incident. Another leading INLA member,^[7] Miriam Daly, was killed by loyalist assassins in the same year. The INLA claimed the SAS was involved in the killings of Bunting and Lyttle.

Offensive INLA actions at this time included the 1982 bombing of the Mount Gabriel radar station in County Cork, which the INLA alleged was providing assistance to North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, allegedly in violation of Irish neutrality. Their most bloody attack came on 6 December 1982 – the Ballykelly disco bombing of the Droppin' Well Bar in Ballykelly, County Londonderry, which catered to British military personnel, in which 11 soldiers and 6 civilians were killed. It emerged later at the trial that INLA members from Derry City had carried out several reconnaissance missions "to see if there were enough soldiers to justify the possibility of civilian killings".^{[citation needed]}

INLA hunger strike mural in the Bogside in Derry.

Members of the INLA participated in the 1980 and 1981 hunger strikes for the recognition of the political status of paramilitary prisoners. Three INLA members died during the latter hunger strike – Patsy O'Hara, Kevin Lynch, and Michael Devine, along with seven Provisional IRA members who also died.

On 20 November 1983, three members of the congregation in the Mountain Lodge Pentecostal Church, Darkley near Keady, County Armagh were shot dead during a Sunday service. The attack was claimed by the Catholic Reaction Force, a cover name for a small group of people, including one member of the INLA. The weapon used came from an INLA arms dump, but Tim Pat Coogan claims in his book The IRA that the weapon had been given to the INLA member to assassinate a known loyalist and the attack on the church was not sanctioned. The INLA's then chief of staff, Dominic McGlinchey, came out of hiding to condemn the attack.

Supergrass

In the early 1980s, the INLA all but collapsed because of splits and criminality within its own ranks, as well as the conviction of many of its members under the British supergrass scheme. Harry Kirkpatrick, an INLA volunteer, was arrested in February 1983 on charges of five murders and subsequently agreed to give evidence against other INLA members.^[8]

The INLA kidnapped his wife Elizabeth, ^[9] and later kidnapped his sister and his stepfather too. All were released physically unharmed. INLA Chief of Staff Dominic McGlinchey is alleged to have killed Kirkpatrick's lifelong friend Gerard 'Sparky' Barkley because he may have revealed the whereabouts of the Kirkpatrick family members to the police.^[10]

In May 1983, ten men were charged with various offences on the basis of evidence from Kirkpatrick. Those charged included Irish Republican Socialist Party vice-chairman Kevin McQuillan and former councillor Sean Flynn. IRSP chairman and INLA member James Brown was charged with the murder of a police officer. ^[11] Others escaped; Jim Barr, an IRSP member named by Kirkpatrick as part of the INLA, fled to the USA where, having spent 17 months in jail, he won political asylum in 1993.^{[12] [13]}

In December 1985, 27 people were convicted on the basis of Kirkpatrick's statements. By December 1986, 24 of them would have their convictions overturned. Gerard Steenson was given five life sentences for the deaths of the same five individuals that Kirkpatrick himself had been convicted of. These included UDR soldier Colin Quinn shot in Belfast in December 1980.

The distrust and division that they sowed were the final act in splitting former comrades into warring factions and leading to the formation of the Irish People's Liberation Organisation by Jimmy Brown and Gerard Steenson, both of whom had been convicted under the supergrass scheme. This led to that organisation's feud with the INLA in which 16 people would be killed.

Feuds and splits

In 1987, the INLA and its political wing, the IRSP came under attack from the Irish People's Liberation Organisation (IPLO), an organisation founded by people who had resigned or been expelled from the INLA. The IPLO's initial aim was to destroy the INLA and replace it with their organisation. Five members of the INLA were killed by the IPLO, including their leaders Ta Power and John O'Reilly. The INLA retaliated with several killings of their own. After the INLA killed the IPLO's leader, Gerard Steenson, a truce was reached. Although severely damaged by the IPLO's attacks, the INLA continued to exist. The IPLO, which was heavily involved in drug dealing, was put out of existence by the Provisional IRA in the early 1990s.

Directly after the feud in October 1987, the INLA received more damaging publicity when Dessie O'Hare, an erstwhile INLA volunteer set up his own group called the 'Irish Revolutionary Brigade' and kidnapped a Dublin dentist named John O'Grady. O'Hare cut off two of O'Grady's fingers and sent them to his family in order to secure a ransom. O'Grady was eventually rescued and O'Hare's group arrested after several shootouts with armed Gardai. The INLA disassociated itself from the action, issuing a statement saying O'Hare, 'is not a member of the INLA' ^[14]. O'Hare later rejoined the INLA while in prison.

In 1995, four members of the INLA, including chief of staff Hugh Torney, were arrested by Gardaí in Balbriggan while trying to smuggle weapons from Dublin to Belfast. Torney, with the support of two of his co-accused, called a ceasefire in exchange for favourable treatment by the Irish authorities. Since Torney, who was chief of staff, under the INLA's rules lacked the authority to call a ceasefire, he and the two men who supported him were expelled from the INLA.

Torney and one of those men, Dessie McCleery, and founder member John Fennell were not going to surrender the leadership of the organisation. Their faction, known as the INLA/GHQ, assassinated the new INLA chief of staff, Gino Gallagher. After the INLA killed both McCleery and Torney in 1996, the rest of Torney's faction quietly disbanded.

Killing of Billy Wright

In December 1997, three members of the INLA imprisoned in Long Kesh assassinated Loyalist Volunteer Force leader Billy Wright, also known as "King Rat." The killing led to a series of retaliatory Loyalist attacks on Catholics. The INLA in turn responded with the shooting dead of Ulster Defence Association (UDA) leader Jim Guiney. This spate of killings temporarily threw the Northern Ireland Peace Process into crisis.

One of the INLA killers, John Kenneway, has since seemed to have taken his own life and was found dead in his cell in Maghaberry Prison at 1855 BST, on Friday 8 June 2007.^[15]

Ceasefire

The INLA declared a ceasefire on 22 August 1998. When calling its ceasefire, the INLA acknowledged the 'faults and grievous errors in our prosecution of the war'. The INLA admitted that innocent people had been killed and injured 'and at times our actions as a liberation army fell far short of what they should have been'. The INLA went on to accept the massive vote in favour of the Good Friday Agreement – an arrangement it had opposed during the 1998 referendum – by the people of Ireland.

'The will of the Irish people is clear. It is now time to silence the guns and allow the working classes the time and the opportunity to advance their demands and their needs.'^[16]

Although the INLA does not support the Good Friday Agreement, it does not call for a return to armed struggle on behalf of republicans either. An INLA statement released in 1999 declared, "we do not see a return to armed struggle as a viable option at the present time" ^[17]

Post-ceasefire activities

INLA volunteers in the Bogside area of Derry (2005)

The INLA maintains a presence in parts of Northern Ireland and has carried out punishment beatings on local alleged petty criminals.^[18]

The Independent Monitoring Commission, which monitors paramilitary activity in Northern Ireland, claimed in a November 2004 report that the INLA was heavily involved in criminality. In 1997, an INLA man named John Morris was shot dead by Gardaí (Irish Police) in Dublin during the attempted robbery of a newspaper distributor's depot in Inchicore. Three other INLA members were arrested in the incident ^[19]. In 1999, the INLA in Dublin became involved in a feud with a criminal gang in the west of the city. After a young INLA man named Patrick Campbell was killed by drug dealers, the INLA carried out several shootings in reprisal, including at least one killing. Irish journalist Paul Williams has also claimed the INLA, especially in Dublin, is now primarily a front for organised crime. The IRSP and INLA deny these allegations, arguing that no one has been simultaneously convicted of membership in the INLA and of drug offences. The IRSP and the INLA have both strongly denied any involvement with drug dealing, stating that the INLA has threatened criminals which it claims have falsely used its name.

In 2006, the INLA claimed to have put at least two drugs gangs out of business in Northern Ireland. After their raid on a criminal organisation based in the north-west, they released a statement saying that "the Irish National Liberation Army will not allow the working class people of this city to be used as cannon fodder by these criminals whose only concern is profit by whatever means available to them."^[20][21]

The October 2006 Independent Monitoring Commission (IMC) report stated that the INLA "was not capable of undertaking a sustained campaign [against the United Kingdom], nor does it aspire to".^[22]

In December 2007, disturbances broke out at an INLA parade in the Bogside in Derry between watchers and Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) officers attempting to arrest four of the marchers.^[23]

In the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Independent Monitoring Commission reports the INLA were said to have remained a threat, with a desire to mount more attack, and could well be more dangerous in the future, although in the meantime it was largely a criminal enterprise. In the same vein they committed the murder of Brian McGlynn on 3 June 2007 during the span of the former's report. This murder was said to have occurred because the victim used the INLA name in the drug trade.^[24][25] On 24 June 2008, the INLA was said to have committed the murder of Emmett Shiels, although the IMC report did indicate the investigation was continuing. It was also said to be partaking in "serious crimes" such as drug dealing, extortion, robbery, fuel laundering and smuggling. ^[26] Furthermore, the INLA and CIRA are noted to have co-operated.

On 15 February 2009 the INLA claimed responsibility for the shooting dead of Derry drug-dealer Jim McConnell. ^[27]

An INLA memorial in Milltown Cemetery, Belfast

In March 2009 it was reported that the INLA had stood down its Dublin Brigade in order to allow its army council to carry out an internal investigation into allegations of drug-dealing and criminality. The INLA denied it as an organisation was involved in drug dealing and went on to say that "As a result of evidence presented to us, we are investigating the activities of people associated with us in [Dublin]. Pending that outcome, we have stood down several people."^[28] A short time later the INLA's Dublin Commander; Declan "Whacker" Duffy publicly disassociated himself from the organisation. Duffy criticized the INLA leadership stating that "“You would imagine if there was a thorough investigation being carried out by the INLA they would have at least came and spoke to me." He went on to state that: "I can’t deny that I’m disappointed with the way the INLA has handled things but at the same time I’m not going to get into a sniping match with them." ^[29]

On 19 August 2009 the INLA shot and wounded a man in Derry. The INLA claimed that the man was involved in drug dealing although the injured man and his family denied the allegation.^[30] However, in a newspaper article on 28 August the victim retracted his previous statement and admitted that he had been involved in small scale drug-dealing but has since ceased these activities.^[31]

End of armed campaign

On 11 October 2009, speaking at the graveside of one of its founding members in Bray on the outskirts of Dublin, the INLA formally announced an end to its armed campaign, stating the current political framework allowed for the pursuit of its goals through peaceful, democratic means.^{[3] [32]} Martin McMonagle from Derry said: "The Republican Socialist Movement has been informed by the INLA that following a process of serious debate... it has concluded that the armed struggle is over. The objective of a 32-county socialist republic will be best achieved through exclusively peaceful political struggle".^[33][34] They laid a wreath beforehand.^[35]

The governments of Britain and Ireland were informed.^[36] Hillary Rodham Clinton of the United States was due to visit Belfast the following day.^[36] Sinn Féin's Gerry Adams was doubtful but added: "However, if it is followed by the actions that are necessary, this is a welcome development".^[37]

Deaths as a result of activity

According to the University of Ulster's Sutton database, the INLA was responsible for 113 killings during "the Troubles", between 1969 and 2001. According to the INLA's Roll of Honour, 33 of its members were killed during the conflict.^[38]

References

Sources

• Jack Holland, Henry McDonald, INLA - Deadly Divisions'
• CAIN project
• Coogan, Tim Pat, The IRA, Fontana Books, ISBN 0-00-636943-X
• The Starry Plough – IRSP newspaper