The Irish National Liberation Army (INLA; Arm Saoirse Náisiúnta na hÉireann in Irish) is an
Irish republican para-military organisation which was formed on December 8, 1974. Sharing a common ideology with the Irish Republican Socialist Movement (a political wing, the Irish Republican Socialist Party (IRSP), was formed the same day). It enjoyed its peak
of influence in the late 1970s and early 1980s and is now one of a number of small armed republican groups in Ireland. In its
earliest days, the INLA was known as the PLA, or People's Liberation Army. During the PLA period, the group's purpose was
primarily to protect IRSP members from attacks by the Official Irish Republican
Army (Official IRA).
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 Fein. 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 murder 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 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.[1] 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 The 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 May 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 Defence
Association. Noel Lyttle, who was also a Protestant member of INLA, was killed at the same
time. Another leading INLA member, Miriam Daly, was killed 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
was providing assistance to North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, allegedly in violation of
Irish neutrality; and the 6 December
1982 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".
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. In terms of prestige in Irish republicanism, this turned out to be the
high water mark for the INLA.
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.
Feuds and Splits
In the 1980s, the INLA all but collapsed due to splits and criminality within its own ranks, as well as the conviction of many
of its members under the British supergrass scheme. 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. 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.
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 favorable 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 UDA leader Jim Guiney. This spate of murders 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
8th June, 2007 [2]
Ceasefire
The INLA declared a ceasefire on August 22, 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.'[3]
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" [4]
Recent Activities
The INLA maintains a presence in parts of Northern Ireland and has carried out punishment beatings on local alleged petty
criminals.[5]
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, particularly
drug trafficking. 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."[6][7]
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".[8]
Deaths caused by INLA activities
According to the Sutton database of deaths at the University of Ulster's CAIN
project,[9] the INLA was responsible for 113 deaths during
the Troubles. Among its victims were 46 members of the British security forces, 42
civilians, 2 members of the Garda Síochána, 7 loyalist paramilitaries and 16 republican
paramilitaries (including 10 of its own members).
According to the INLA's Roll of Honour, the organisation has lost 33 of its members killed in the Northern Ireland
conflict.[10]
References
- ^ Holland, Jack & McDonald,
Henry (1996). INLA Deadly Divisions. Poolbeg, p. 125-26. ISBN 1-85371-263-9.
- ^ http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/6736185.stm
- ^ http://www.guardian.co.uk/Northern_Ireland/Story/0,,200299,00.html
- ^ [1]
- ^ INLA statement of 2004, claiming responsibility for a punishment attack
http://irsm.org/statements/inla/040113.html
- ^ Belfast Telegraph, 31 March 2006
- ^ Indymedia.ie
- ^ IMC October 2006 Report, section 2.11, HMSO.
- ^ [2]
- ^ http://www.irsm.org/fallen/roll.html
Sources
- Jack Holland, Henry McDonald, INLA - Deadly Divisions
- CAIN project [3]
- Coogan, Tim Pat, The IRA, Fontana Books, ISBN 0-00-636943-X
- The Starry Plough - IRSP newspaper, online at http://www.irsm.org/irsp/starryplough/
External links
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