The Irish Republican Army (IRA)

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that, within its historical context, the IRA formed as a pro-Catholic organization in Northern Ireland to react against British rule, presents a religious issue: The guerrillas of the IRA count on sympathizers from the Catholic population on both sides of the border; whereas, Protestant fears of the Catholic threat became the stock in trade of the Unionist Party. The author points out that, in the modern era, the IRA is still using guerrilla and terrorist tactics and many of the efforts to restrain violence have failed; Even though recently there have been more meetings between the IRA and the British government, violence is a continuing problem with the peace agreements always breaking apart, and cease-fires appear presently to be very fragile. The paper stresses that coming up with a negotiating solution for the problem is difficult because both sides have objectives that are completely incompatible plus the continuing factors: The continuing tendency of the Tories to play for the Unionist MP's support; the inertia, which prevents any constituency arising in British politics to do and the deja-vu factor of hopelessness.

Table of Contents
Introduction
Current Problem
Possible Solutions

From the Paper:

"In modern times of the IRA, which I consider in this report to be roughly the sixties to the present, political as well as religious issues must also be considered in terms of history. Ireland was partitioned into Northern and Southern Ireland in the 1920s, and the Irish Free State was formed after fighting and conflict. This involved political turmoil between Northern Ireland and the UK Parliament, as well as the Irish Republic and its government. The IRA was involved at this time at leading a war against the Irish Free State, which was designed to give Northern Ireland over to UK control."

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