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The PIRA's guerilla or ' terrorist' campaign against those perceived as standing in the way of its desired aims (which included the Royal Ulster Constabulary, the British Army, the Unionist community and, on occasion, the police and army in the Republic of Ireland) played a central role in the Troubles in Northern Ireland. It has been officially on ceasefire since 1997.
The PIRA is also known as the Provisional IRA, the 'Provos' and the Irish Republican Army. It is most commonly referred to simply as the IRA, but several groups claim this title (see: Irish Republican Army).
The PIRA was formed in 1969, with the stated aim of severing the political Union between Great BritainGreat Britain (often abbreviated as Britain is an island lying off the western coast of Europe, comprising the main territory of the United Kingdom. Great Britain is also used as a political term describing the combination of England, Scotland, and Wales, and Northern Ireland, and achieving the unification of the island of Ireland by force, in order to create a socialist republic. Officially it considered the democratically elected British and Irish governments illegitimate, and apparently considered itself the legitimate government of the island of Ireland.
It is organised into small, tight-knit cells under the leadership of the IRA army council. Due to its frequent use of bombings, its assassination of politicians and diplomats, its killing of hundreds of policemen, soldiers and civilians, predominantly though not exclusively in Northern Ireland, its alleged role in racketeering and the fact that the Unionist (or Loyalist) majority in Northern Ireland want British rule, it is generally described as a terrorist group 1 , although its supporters prefer the label guerrilla.
IRA attacks on the British security forces (i.e. the military and RUC) and Loyalist paramilitaries in Northern Ireland could be described as guerrilla warfare, so "guerrilla" may be a technically accurate term. However, many IRA attacks involved the deliberate targeting of civilians.
Membership of the PIRA is outlawed in both the UK and the Republic of Ireland, but PIRA prisoners convicted before 1998 have been granted conditional early release as part of the Good Friday (Belfast) Agreement. In the United Kingdom a person convicted of membership of a "proscribed organisation", such as the PIRA, faces imprisonment for up to 10 years.
According to Reuters [1] the IRA killed almost 1800 people, including 600 civilians. Many of the civilians were deliberately killed, in violation of international humanitarian law.
The Provisional IRA was initially a splinter group of the 'Official' IRA, which claimed descent from the Old IRA: the guerrilla army of the 1919- 1922 Irish Republic. The Official IRA moved to a Marxist analysis of the 'Irish Problem' in the mid 1960s while the PIRA held to a more traditional republican analysis and became larger and more successful, eventually overshadowing the original group. The commonly used name of the PIRA arose when those who were unhappy with the IRA's Army Council formed a "Provisional Army Council" of their own, echoing in turn the "Provisional Government" proclaimed during the Easter Rising of 1916.
The split in the armed wing of the republican movement was mirrored in the separation of the republican political wing. Supporters of the PIRA split from 'Official' Sinn Féin to form Provisional Sinn Féin. Provisional Sinn Féin was later known simply as Sinn Féin (while 'Official' Sinn Féin eventually became the Workers' Party).
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