Ira how many members

He was particularly angered by internment, which had begun in August , when hundreds were imprisoned without trial for suspected involvement with the IRA.

British soldiers conducted aggressive house raids throughout the north, damaging property as they knocked down doors and arrested suspects. The raids left a bitter resentment among the Catholic community and served as a catalyst for many to join the IRA. While in prison he took part in the blanket and dirty protests.

He also took part in the hunger strike for political status. McKearney, who is strongly anti-capitalist, strove for radical change, arguing that entering parliament, whether in the north or south, would simply serve a reformist agenda. A gradual process of reform of existing institutions was not what he had signed up for. I have seen little reason to change my mind since.

To question the armed campaign, within that dissident base, is to be met with accusations of treason and selling out. When the interview was made public the ard chomhairle executive called an emergency meeting, during which Dalton was suspended, with some members calling for his dismissal. After 32 years as a member of RSF, Dalton resigned.

Recognising this fact is not a retreat from the principles of Irish republicanism and the demand for a free united Ireland.

It is simply an acknowledgment of the objective conditions on the ground: recognising what will work best in advancing republican goals. To Dalton, holding these views is not a betrayal of comrades or current republican prisoners. Quite the opposite. The flame must be kept burning.

The party now has a strong electoral mandate on both sides of the border. But McKearney has cautioned that without popular support, armed action cannot succeed. The county has been the scene of several violent clashes between the police and republicans in the past five years.

We were ordered out of the car and searched at the side of the road. The Royal Ulster Constabulary, founded in , was overwhelmingly Protestant in makeup. Viewed with suspicion by the Catholic population, it was seen as a hostile force.

The RUC was accused of operating a shoot-to-kill policy. Repeated allegations have also surfaced of RUC collusion with loyalist paramilitaries in the killing of republicans, and of ordinary members of the Catholic population who had no political involvement. A police ombudsman was also set up to handle complaints against the police.

The RSF spokesperson is in his 30s and is in full-time employment. He has served a sentence in Maghaberry prison as a Continuity IRA prisoner, for possession of explosives. While in Maghaberry in , he joined a dirty protest demanding better conditions. Other members of his family are also active republicans and have been imprisoned in Maghaberry since Like other dissident republicans, he is regularly stopped by the PSNI, his home and car are often searched and his name and address are recorded at protests or meetings in the north and south.

It would be a British declaration of intent to withdraw. In the post period Northern Ireland became increasingly demilitarised, which included the dismantling of British army barracks and the departure of foot patrols. For dissident groups, the more normal life becomes, the less focus there is on the fact that Ireland is still partitioned.

Security alerts and attacks on the police continue to demonstrate that Northern Ireland is not a normal society. Even rule out all the unionists and ask the nationalist community to vote on who you want rid of. They are now administering British rule.

They are in government in both puppet parliaments. Although Northern Ireland has been officially demilitarised since , dissident republicans highlight the fact that the British army maintains a presence in Palace and Thiepval barracks.

They are here on the streets daily. British army intelligence are here. They are placed in patrols along with the PSNI. Saoradh member Dee Fennell says the continuing British military presence demonstrates that the dissident republican groups still pose a threat. Relatives For Justice RFJ A group mainly made up of relatives of those who had been killed by members of the security forces in disputed circumstances.

The group was established in Belfast in April At an annual meeting in it was suggested that specialist teams should be established to investigate disputed killings. From the RFJ website: "RFJ is a Belfast based NGO support group working with and providing support to relatives of people bereaved, and injured, by the conflict across the North of Ireland including border regions in the 26 counties. We work primarily with those people affected by state and state sponsored violence.

We assist and support families coping with the effects of bereavement through violence and the resulting trauma. This is provided through our drop-in services and satellite befriending programmes. Reading: Rolston, Bill. It largely targeted those people it alleged were drug dealers by means of pipe bombs or arson attacks on their property, threatening or banishing alleged dealers, and paramilitary 'punishment attacks' where alleged dealers were shot in the legs.

It is believed that the group formed in Republican Clubs See: Workers' Party. It was alleged to have carried an assault in Strabane. It supported a non-violent Republicanism with strong socialist principles. In the Stormont election the party got 2. The party was also active in the civil rights campaign. The party dissolved in with the failure to secure a seat at the Assembly election. Resistance A small Loyalist paramilitary group that was believed to have received a consignment of arms in See also: Combined Loyalist Military Command.

They were all set up at the same time, but have different purposes. They are all independent of each other. Its structure is very similar to that of the Orange Order, although instead of Lodges, members group together in Preceptories. An individual must be a member of an Orange Order before he can be admitted to the Royal Black Institution.

The Royal Black Institution holds its main parades on the 13 July and the last Saturday in August, and they are generally attended by approximately 30, members. Most commentators saw this as a move to try and deal with the persistent criticism of the UDR. The UDR was almost entirely Protestant and a number of its members were actively involved with Loyalist paramilitary groups.

The RIR was made up of six home battalions and one battalion for service overseas. The RIR was comprised of 5, soldiers; 3, being full-time and 2, part time. More than 3, soldiers serve in the three 'home-based' battalions, many of these are part-time soldiers. Civil rights campaigns protesting against Catholic discrimination — especially concerning housing, jobs and voting rights — had emerged in the s, but, despite being non-violent, came into regular conflict with loyalists and the Protestant-dominated police, the Royal Ulster Constabulary.

This was the beginning of an almost year deployment called Operation Banner. A weakened IRA rallied in the chaos, but soon divided over the use of violence. The Provos became dominant in the Troubles and started its guerrilla campaign — the Long War — in Through bombings, assassinations and ambushes, the Provos hoped to make Northern Ireland ungovernable. The British and unionists retaliated by arresting suspected IRA members or supporters in droves, interring them without trial, and perpetrating their own attacks.

In the immediate aftermath of the events of , anger among nationalists led to a surge in IRA recruitment. Later in , the Provos set off more than 20 bombs in Belfast, timed for just an minute window on 21 July. Bloody Friday left nine dead and around injured, many of them civilians. That year also saw the dissolving of the Northern Irish parliament and the British taking direct rule once more.

In , the IRA campaign escalated with the targeting of the British mainland. Bombs went off on a bus carrying soldiers in Yorkshire; at the Tower of London and Houses of Parliament; and in cities such as Bristol. The most devastating were the bombings of two pubs in Guildford on 5 October, and two pubs in Birmingham on 21 November, killing five and 21 people respectively. At a time of particularly high tension, British police were under pressure to act and made quick arrests — only for it to be later proven that the socalled Guildford Four and Birmingham Six were wrongfully convicted.

He died along with three others.