The Ira In The Summer Of 69 Flashcards
They haven’t gone away you know…
The Summer of 1969 was marked by persistent violence on both sides. A few very important things were happening:
• Loyalist groups were coming into Catholic areas and burning down entire streets of houses making people homeless.
• The British Army was being welcomed into Catholic areas with tea, biscuits and sandwiches.
• The British Army was seen by many Catholics as being there to protect them.
Ira - I Ran Away.
The Irish Republican Army existed to pursue a united Ireland, all 32 counties existing as one independent country and their main tactic in achieving this was violence.
• In the 1950s the IRA launched a new bombing campaign around the border with very little success.
• The bombing campaign was quickly called of because no catholics supported it.
Moving into the 1960s most catholic support was for the Civil Rights movement and when violence started to grow many criticised the IRA for not being able to protect its own community. Very soon, graffiti started appearing in catholic area of Belfast ‘IRA – I RAN AWAY’
I Ran Away comes back
The ‘I Ran Away’ nickname was resting heavy on the shoulders of some younger IRA members. Since 1962 the group had been moving towards Socialism and a more political route to a united Ireland.
Many younger members were not happy with this new political IRA and its inability to protect Catholics in Northern Ireland.
In the last days of 1969 the IRA split into two groups.
• The Official IRA (OIRA) continued trying to establish a socialist Ireland and established a ceasefire in 1972 (stop using violence).
• The Provisional IRA (PIRA) claimed itself as the official defender of the catholic people and committed themselves to an armed struggle against British rule.
Aims of the PIRA
Early 1970, the PIRA set out its aims:
• Civil rights for Catholics. • Defend the catholic population.
• Destroy the Stormont • End British rule in Ireland Government.
As the sectarian violence increased across NI membership of the PIRA continued to grow. For a lot of young people they saw it as the only way to protect their community, targeting police officers and the army with bombings and shootings.
The return of the IRA convinced many protestants that catholics would only ever be satisfied with a United Ireland and that protestants now needed to defend themselves.
The IRA and the British Army
The final aim on the last slide “end British rule from Ireland’ meant that the British Army was a direct target for the IRA.
Although stating Civil Rights as an aim the IRA really had no interest in the movement.
• They were forced back into action by loyalist violence.
• The British Army now gave them a target.
The IRA could now claim to be fighting the British Army to get them
out of Ireland.
• Up to now events in NI were about politics and civil rights, now they were moving towards a fight for a United Ireland.
As the IRA made their moves against the British Army, the Army was forced to take defensive action.
•The army imposed the Falls Road Curfew to enable them to carryout house-to-house searches for weapons. People were restricted to their homes for 36 hours.
• The search was successful, they found weapons, ammunition and explosives but it fatally damaged their relationship with the nationalist people.
• The nationalist people turned on the army after this, no longer were they seen as a protector of people but rather as just another arm of the British state that kept them oppressed.
• The Curfew drove membership of the PIRA from 100 to over 800. • Historians have called it a ‘godsend for the IRA’.
The UVF
Strangely enough, the loyalist paramilitaries had the exact same aim as the PIRA: get rid of the Stormont government, though for entirely different reasons of course.
•They were sick of what they saw as concessions being made to Catholics and wanted a return to a Unionist dominated state.
The UVF re-emerged in the 1960’s in response to NICRA and the general civil rights movement, they re-formed in a bid to stop O’Neill making more concessions to Catholics and to ensure Northern Ireland remained British.
The UDA
The Ulster Defence Association formed in 1971 in order to defend protestant communities and for most of its existence it remained a legal organization.
•With 30,000 members within a year, most saw it as too big to try and ban.
•The UDA’s primary aim was to defend protestants from the IRA.
Within the UDA however was the Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF) who carried out their own attacks. The UFF was declared illegal in 1973.
