Irish Republican Army Research Paper

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Pages: 5

The IRA or Irish Republican Army was formed in 1969 and they are still in existence in Ireland today. Their main aim is to bring together a both Ireland and Northern Ireland and to take Ireland away from British rule. They are known as a terrorist group that put terror in the lives of the British whilst thinking they were trying to get freedom from the United Kingdom so that Ireland could become an independent country.
The Irish Republican Army are the militant wing of Sinn Fein and consider themselves Freedom Fighters because they do not want to live under British rule and will do anything to free their country from the United Kingdom. They started their bombing campaign shortly after Bloody Sunday which was on the 30 January 1972 where
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These were pubs that off-duty British soldiers went to. Britain was shocked and horrified at the bombings where innocent people were killed on their homeland. The British Government started putting more police on the streets to do patrols hoping that this would stop the terrorist acts. The extra police on the streets did not slow down the Irish Republican Army, as they carried on bombing other pubs on British grounds.
The Irish Republican Army intensified their attacks on pubs in Birmingham where two more pubs were unexpectedly attacked with bombs, injuring 182 people and killing 19 British people in the hopes that the British government would start listening to what they wanted and give Ireland independence. However, the British government did not want to give Ireland up to a terrorist group as they thought they would defeat the Irish Republican Army.
The Irish Republican Army thought that the bombing campaigns were not enough so they started a new campaign of assassinations. The assassinations mainly focused on attacking British and Irish Unionists who they felt did not support them. This campaign was just another way to add more pressure on the British to give the IRA what they
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It didn’t last long and it ended midnight on the 2 January 1975. The Irish Republican Army quoted “We achieve more in war time then in peace time.” The Irish Republican Army also started a series of hunger strikes so that they can prove their point. The first hunger strike didn’t work out. Bobby Sands decided to do another hunger strike in 1981. He also decided to be a candidate in the by-elections and he was the first Irish Republican Army prisoner to be elected to parliament.
The British Government was getting worried about the rise of Sinn Fein within the Irish Republican Army and Mrs Thatcher decided to ask the Dublin Government for help. The idea was to try and get more support for the Social Democratic and Labour Party. This agreement was called the Anglo-Irish Agreement.
The Irish Republican Army suffered one of their biggest losses in 1987 when they got ambushed just outside a police station in Loughgall. They received weapons from Libya’s Colonel Gaddafi and they tried to attack the police station like they had done previously at The Birchs. The SAS found out about the attack that they were planning and planned an ambush on the Irish Republican Army. The SAS lead them into the ambush killing 8 members of the Tyrone Brigade of the Irish Republican