Although there were many IRA men — both Official and Provisional — present at the protest, it is claimed they were all unarmed, apparently because it was anticipated that the paratroopers would attempt to " draw them out ".

Paddy Ward claimed he was the leader of the Fianna Éireann, the youth wing of the IRA in January 1972.

He claimed McGuinness, the second-in-command of the IRA in the city at the time, and another anonymous IRA member gave him bomb parts on the morning of 30 January, the date planned for the civil rights march.

The Provisional IRA convention delegates opposed to the change in the Constitution claimed that the convention was gerrymandered " by the creation of new IRA organisational structures for the convention, including the combinations of Sligo-Roscommon-Longford and Wicklow-Wexford-Waterford.

In February 2006, the Independent Monitoring Commission claimed in a report on paramilitary activity that two groups, styling themselves as Saoirse na hÉireann and Óglaigh na hÉireann, had been formed after a split in the Continuity IRA.

The CPS claimed that Bruce Kent, the general secretary of CND and a Catholic priest, was a supporter of IRA terrorism.

The IRA later claimed that their target was a colour guard of British soldiers.

Anti-treaty writer Dorothy Macardle has claimed that 70 to 80 percent of the IRA was against the Treaty.

When challenged on this, Maguire claimed that, as the IRA “ were no longer the same as they used to be ”, he disagreed with the organisation.

Whenever it claimed responsibility for its attacks, the UVF usually claimed that those targeted were IRA members or IRA sympathisers.

Other times, attacks on Catholic civilians were claimed as " retaliation " for IRA actions, since the IRA drew most of its support from the Catholic community.

It is claimed that some RIC helped the IRA in this attack.

The IRA claimed that the office above the shop was regularly used by the UDA for meetings and one was due to take place shortly after the bomb exploded.

IRA historian J. Bowyer Bell stated, with respect to the Provisional IRA, that, " There was some support in Belfast, although less than claimed " ( p. 367 ).

While the truce was welcomed by enthusiastic crowds, and some arrangement beyond the Home Rule Act 1920 provisions was in prospect, it was also evident that the IRA military campaign had not secured the 32-county republic claimed by the Dáil, and that a separate government in Northern Ireland was now functioning.

Until recently republican paramilitary groups, such the Provisional IRA, often claimed that their campaigns derived legitimacy from this 1918 mandate, and some still do.

* Irish Republican Army ( IRA ), a name claimed by multiple groups

Some of the police later claimed that they were fired on first by IRA sentries, but this has never been proven.

However, because of the localised and irregular character of the war, they were only able to exert limited control over local IRA commanders such as Tom Barry, Liam Lynch in Cork and Seán Mac Eoin in Longford.

IRA Chief-of-Staff Richard Mulcahy bemoaned the fact that they had not been able to drive the British " out of anything bigger than a fairly good size police barracks ".

While the amiable Fergus guards Jody, they develop a bond – much to the chagrin of the other IRA men.

Sure enough, Fergus cannot bring himself to shoot the fleeing Jody in the back, but Jody is instead accidentally run over and killed by British armoured personnel carriers as they suddenly move in to assault the IRA safehouse.

The RUC and army arrested 342 Catholics, but key Provisional Irish Republican Army ( IRA ) members had been tipped off and 104 of those arrested were released when it emerged they had no paramilitary connections.

The two highest-ranking RUC officers to be killed in the Troubles were Chief Superintendent Harry Breen and Superintendent Robert Buchanan when they were ambushed by the Provisional IRA South Armagh Brigade outside Jonesborough, County Armagh, on 20 March 1989.

In 1934 the Fianna Fáil government set up a version of the Free State CID, when they enticed members of the Dublin Brigade IRA to join the Special Branch of An Garda Siochana.

When WW2 broke out, the old IRA and old Fianna organisations marched as a body to Griffith Barracks in Dublin and they joined the Irish Army there as a separate battalion.

Because they were driving around in a British car, terrorists linked to the IRA thought they were British soldiers.

The two men were lawyers on holiday, whom the IRA shot believing they were off-duty British Army soldiers.

His father later saves him from IRA justice, as they are about to kneecap him, and he is sent off to London for his own good.

Harris was a vocal supporter of the IRA from the early 1970s until they carried out the Harrods bombing in 1983, after which he disavowed them.

As a result, they were reluctant to use force to defend Catholic areas of Belfast when they came under attack from loyalists — a role the IRA had performed since the 1920s.

Many local IRA figures, and ex-IRA members such as Joe Cahill and Billy McKee, were incensed by what they saw as the leadership's inaction and in September, they announced that they would no longer be taking orders from the Goulding leadership.

This flared up into violence on several occasions, notably in October 1975, when the Provisionals sought out and shot Official IRA members in Belfast — 11 republicans on either side were killed in the feud ; a nine year-old girl was also shot dead by the Provisionals when they tried to shoot her father.

However, the assassination by the IRA of Kevin O ' Higgins, the Vice-President of the Executive Council ( deputy prime minister ), led to the passing of a new Act requiring all prospective Dáil candidates to take an oath that, if elected, they would swear the Oath of Allegiance ; a refusal to do so would prohibit anyone from candidacy in a general or by-election.

However, Brian Hanley's history of the IRA from 1926-1936 concludes that the trouble arose because they were seen as " communist ", and not for sectarian reasons.

The IRA has effective control of Ireland, but as the governments of the world grow certain that O ' Neill is there and essentially in custody, they consider wiping out the three targeted countries to end the lingering threat.

In addition they burned several houses and all businesses connected with Irish Republican Army ( IRA ) activists.

They soon gained a reputation for brutality, as the RIC campaign against the IRA and Sinn Féin members was stepped up and police reprisals for IRA attacks were condoned by the government.

The Black and Tans were not subject to strict discipline in their early months in Ireland and as a result, their deaths at the hands of the IRA in 1920 were often repaid with arbitrary reprisals against the civilian population.

At a certain point, reports of an IRA sniper operating in the area were allegedly given to the Army command centre.

These changes within the military wing of the Republican Movement were accompanied by changes in the political wing and at the 1986 Sinn Féin Ard Fheis ( party conference ), which followed the IRA Convention, the party's policy of abstentionism, which forbade Sinn Féin elected representatives from taking seats in the Oireachtas, the parliament of Ireland, was dropped.

They also suspect that the Continuity IRA arsenal contains some weapons that were taken from Provisional IRA arms dumps, including a few dozen rifles, machine guns, and pistols ; a small amount of the explosive Semtex ; and a few dozen detonators.

On 21 January 1994, on the 75th anniversary of the First Dáil Éireann, Continuity IRA volunteers offered a " final salute " to Tom Maguire by firing over his grave, and a public statement and a photo were published in Saoirse Irish Freedom.

Eleven people were killed and hundreds injured as a result of a Provisional Irish Republican Army ( IRA ) bomb.

At the same time as the Enniskillen bombing, the IRA also planted a bomb 20 miles away in Tullyhommon, near Pettigo, where the Boys ' Brigade and the Girls ' Brigade were due to participate in a Remembrance Day service.

After the film was released, the IRA were furious and threatened to kidnap Bono.

In addition, the methods of the IRA were to some extent inspired by the traditions of militant agrarian Irish secret societies like the Defenders, the Ribbonmen and the supporters of the Irish Land League.

In addition, a number of directors were elected to head the various IRA departments.

The new leadership of the Irish Republic worried that the IRA would not accept its authority, given that the Volunteers, under their own constitution, were bound to obey their own executive and no other body.

The fear was increased when, on the very day the new national parliament was meeting, 21 January 1919, members of the IRA Third Tipperary Brigade led by Seán Treacy and Dan Breen seized a quantity of gelignite and two Royal Irish Constabulary constables ( James McDonnell and Patrick O ' Connell ) were shot dead in the process.

Technically, the men involved were considered to be in a serious breach of IRA discipline and were liable to be court-martialed, but it was considered more politically expedient to hold them up as examples of a rejuvenated militarism.

Moves to make the IRA the army of the Dáil and not its rival had begun before the January attack, and were stepped up.

As part of the ongoing strategy to take control of the IRA, Brugha proposed to Dáil Éireann on 20 August 1919 that the Volunteers were to be asked, at this next convention, to swear allegiance to the Dáil.

Brugha and de Valera both urged the IRA to undertake larger, more conventional military actions for the propaganda effect, but were ignored by Collins and Mulcahy.

These men were able to issue orders and directives to IRA guerrilla units around the country and at times to send arms and organisers to specific areas.