Who fought against the Irish Republican Army?

Answer 1

The Irish Republican Army evolved from the Irish Volunteers who staged the Easter Rising in 1916. In 1919, an elected assembly was formed in Ireland and the Volunteers were recognized by this assembly as an offical army. For three years the IRA used hit and run tactics against the occupying British forces in the Irish War for Independence.

Following the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921, which established the Republic of Ireland as its own soverign nation, those within the IRA that supported the treaty formed the Irish national Army, those that did not fought a civil war with their former comrades but eventually lost. They remained together afterwards, intending to overthrow the Irish Free State and British controled Northern Ireland and creating a unified free Irish nation.

Keeping the IRA title, the anti-treaty splinter group continued its attacks against both the Republic of Ireland and the British forces in the North until 1969 when the group split once again into the Provisional Irish Republican Army, who supported more traditional Irish republican views and the Offical IRA who began embracing Marxism.

This newest encarnation of the IRA, or Provos, launched a thirty year campaign against British forces in Northern Ireland and various pro-British para-military orginisations that claimed nearly two thousand lives.

The Offical IRA began their own campaign but called a ceasefire in 1972 before disbanding entirely by the end of the decade.

1997 marked the end of the armed campaign for the IRA while its political wing, Sinn Fein, continues to grow more powerful in both Northern Ireland and in the Republic of Ireland.

Answer 2

They were the army, formed in the early 1900's, which stemmed from the Irish republican brotherhood and other pro-freedom orgs. They were the major force in winning independence from England in 1921. They also had the border campaign in the 50s and 60s.

They disbanded in 1969 and were replaced by other Republican Revolution groups.

Answer 3

Yes, although their sympathizers (particularly "Irish" Americans who like to romanticize them, yet have spent their entire lives in the US without ever having partaken in even the slightest bit of actual Irish culture) like to claim otherwise.

Answer 4

until the signing of the Good Friday agreement and the subsequent agreements the IRA was regarded as a terrorist group. Since then it has decommissioned its weapons and declared it will only follow peaceful means, so I suppose it is no longer technically a terrorist organisation, but there would be differing opinions

Answer 5

Descended from the Irish Volunteers that staged the Easter Uprising in April of 1916, the Irish Republican Army became the legitimate army of the formally established Irish Republic in 1919.

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Answer 6

The Irish Republican Army or IRA was an anti British paramilitary force established in 1919 by Irish Nationalists to combat both UK and Protestant Irish forces in Ireland. It was suppressed by the Irish government in the 1922 rising, and remained largely inactive until the late nineteen sixties when it became a terrorist organisation that was primarily active against the majority population of Protestants in Northern Ireland and against British troops in that Province, but also embarked on terrorist activity within Great Britain.

In 1969 a big split within its ranks led to the formation of the Provisional IRA alongside the Official IRA. The Official IRA supported political action to try to achieve Irish unity, but the Provisional IRA became the dominant Republican force for shootings and bombings in Northern Ireland, Great Britain and on continent of Europe.

Answer 7

They have traditionally been aligned with Sinn Fein, which is a Democratic Socialist party.

Answer 8

Total Irish independence from Britain.