Page 62 - All About History - Issue 52-17

In pictures

THE IRISH REPUBLICAN ARMY

Responsible for the deaths of 1,700 people during the Northern Ireland

conlict, the shadow of the IRA still looms large over Northern Irish society

he 1920 Government of Ireland Act provided for was initially a calming influence but quickly led to
the partitioning of Ireland and the creation of further radicalisation. ANDREW SANDERS
two states: an independent southern state and a The deadliest group in what became known as the
northern state that would remain a member of Northern Ireland conflict was the Irish Republican
Assistant professor of Political
Tthe United Kingdom. Ever since, Irish nationalists Army, which killed more than 1,700 people before its Science at Texas A&M
and republicans have sought the reunification of the lasting ceasefire of 1997 and the decommissioning of its University-San Antonio, and
the author of Inside the IRA:
island. Notable campaigns by the Irish Republican weaponry eight years later. A decade after the ceasefire,
Dissident Republicans and the
Army during World War II and during the late 1950s Sinn Féin, its political wing, went into a power-sharing War for Legitimacy, and The
saw little success, but the emerging Northern Ireland government with the hard-line Ulster unionist party, Long Peace Process: The United
States of America and Northern Ireland, 1960-
civil rights campaign of the late 1960s drew violent the Democratic Unionist Party. Today, former IRA
2000, and the co-author of Times of Troubles:
counter demonstrations. The deployment of the British members sit in the devolved Assembly at Stormont Britain’s War in Northern Ireland.
Army to the streets of Northern Ireland in August 1969 Castle in Belfast as part of the Sinn Féin delegation.

BLOODY SUNDAY, 1972

After the IRA split in 1969, the ‘Provisional’ wing launched
its campaign of violence. The British Army killings of
‘Bloody Sunday’ in early 1972 prompted a surge in IRA
membership. By the end of the year, it had killed 230.

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