User:Mal McKee/Irish Republican Army

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Actually a broad term encompassing both historical and factional organizations, the Irish Republican Army (IRA) includes various insurgent groups beginning in when Ireland was a colony of the United Kingdon, in the Republic of Ireland and in Northern Ireland. At various times, different groups claimed the title, resulting in various qualifiers such as Official IRA, Provisional IRA, Real IRA, etc.

IRA groups variously have considered themselves subordinate to overt political organizations, or been autonomous movements of their own.

Origins

Before any group called itself the IRA, there were Irish Home Rule movement, opposed by the Protestant Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) that objected to Catholic-dominated, Irish nationalist Home Rule. Had there been no UVF and no opposition to Home Rule, the Irish Volunteers would not have had a motivation to conduct the Easter Rising of 1916. While the Irish Volunteers were not the only nationalist force, which arose from the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB), the original IRA can be traced most clearly to them. The IRB had been formed in 1858.