Physical force Irish republicanism
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Physical force Irish republicanism is a term used by historians in Ireland to describe the recurring appearance of non-parliamentary violent insurrection in Ireland between 1798 and the present. It is often described as a rival to parliamentary nationalism which for most of the period drew the predominant amount of support from Irish nationalists.
[edit] Definition
Physical force Irish republicanism has usually been marked by a number of features:
- A commitment to an Irish republic which stressed the rights of the Irish people as a community to independence and the ownership of Ireland rather than to individual rights, such as the rights to private property;
- The holding of a series of rebellions or campaigns, sometimes with minimal support, but some of whom impacted upon parliamentary nationalism;
- A demand to break all links with the United Kingdom through the use of force.
- The use of secret societies to plot and organise rebellions; including the Fenians/Irish Republican Brotherhood.
The most prominent physical force rebellions and campaigns were:
- 1798 rebellion of Wolfe Tone and the Society of the United Irishmen
- 1803 rebellion associated with Robert Emmet -also a United Irishman
- 1848 Young Irelander Rebellion of 1848 associated with Thomas Davis and Charles Gavan Duffy
- 1867 Fenian rebellion associated with James Stephens and Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa
- 1916 Easter Rising associated with Padraig Pearse and James Connolly
- 1919-21 Anglo-Irish War
- 1922-23 Irish Civil War
- 1940s Sabotage Campaign (IRA)
- 1950s Border Campaign (IRA)
- 1969-97 Provisional IRA campaign 1969-1997
- 1997 - present Real Irish Republican Army, Continuity Irish Republican Army
[edit] Brief History
The United Irishmen of 1798 were a mass movement, largely led by liberal Protestants, who desired to "break the connection with England" and found a non-sectarian Irish Republic. To this end, they secured French military aid and launched their own rebellion. However, not only was the rising unsuccessful, it also unleashed a bloodbath, in which government forces killed over 20,000 rebels (or suspected rebels) and the insurgents themselves committed a number of atrocities against Protestant loyalists. Many historians and contemporary archives suggest that the 1798 rebellion triggered British determination to abolish the Parliament of Ireland and to ensure the union of the Kingdoms of Ireland and Great Britain, lest a rebellious Ireland, in sympathy with revolutionary France, be used as a means to attack Britain. Robert Emmet's abortive rebellion of 1803 was essentially an aftershock of the 1798 rebellion. It was confined to a skirmish in Dublin, after which Emmet was hanged.
The Young Ireland rebellion of 1848 was launched in frustration with the failure of Daniel O'Connell's Repeal Association movement to secure the repeal of the Union, or self-government for Ireland. The Young Irelander had previously supported O'Connell until he cancelled plans for a mass rally under British threat of force. The 1848 rebellion was a humiliating failure. Although it was launched during the Great Irish Famine, it did not address any of the stark social and economic questions of the day, and it has been argued that it actually helped weaken the strength of the parliamentary movement of the recently deceased Daniel O'Connell ("The Liberator"). Others contend that the movement, under the politically less skilled Morgan O'Connell, was a spent force politically in any case.
The 1867 rebellion of the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB) was the culmination of several years of agitation by this secret, oath-bound organisation. The IRB, or Fenians, planned a national insurrection and the foundation of an Irish Republic with the aid of radicalised Irish units in the British Army. Although the Fenians had some success in infiltrating army units and had a considerable presence in parts of Ireland, they were also deeply penetrated by spies and informers. The British took steps to remove seditious army units from Ireland and the rebellion was launched against the better judgement of the IRB leadership on the urgings of the American based Clan na Gael. It was unsuccessful in a military sense with only isolated skirmishes taking place but did become a focal point in Irish revolutionary folklore, inspiring later generations of rebels. The Fenians later conducted several bombing attacks in England in attempts to free their imprisoned allies. One such raid resulted in the hanging of three IRB men, known as the "Manchester Martyrs", for the killing of a policeman.
The 1916 Easter Rising was launched by the IRB, the Irish Volunteers and the Irish Citizen Army. The motivation for the rising was dissatisfaction with the delayed granting of Home Rule, and the perception that Home Rule was, in any case, too limited a form of independence. It had a dramatic impact in achieving Irish independence. Though it too was a military failure, with its "Government of the Irish Republic" executed, the backlash against the brutality of the British response was a factor in allowing surviving rising leader Éamon de Valera to win a majority for the separatist Sinn Fein party in the 1918 general election. Sinn Féin then declared the Irish Republic to be in existence. Its parliament, the First Dáil first met in 1919, and the British declared it an illegal assembly shortly afterwards. At around the same time, the Volunteers, now organised as the Irish Republican Army began a guerrilla war, the Irish War of Independence (1919-1921), against the British Government in Ireland. By July 1921, the campaign had brought the British Government to the conclusion that it would have to negotiate with the Dáil to end the violence.
The war was ended with the signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty, which created an independent Irish dominion known as the Irish Free State for 26 of Ireland's 32 counties. The remaining 6 were to remain in the UK as Northern Ireland. The Treaty was narrowly passed in the Dáil in January 1922. While the leadership of the IRA, Michael Collins and Richard Mulcahy, in the forefront in accepting the treaty, the majority of the Army did not accept the abolition of the Irish Republic. In April 1922, they formed their own "Army Executive" and renounced the authority of the Dáil to accept the Treaty. Political leaders such as Éamon de Valera and Cathal Brugha, also unhappy with the Treaty, supported their actions. These tensions ultimately plunged the new Irish state into civil war (1922-1923). Ultimately, the Irish Free State put down the Anti-treaty IRA and ended the war by May 1923, though not before the deaths of many of those who had fought together in 1919-1921.
Physical force republicanism continued on after 1923. As a result of the Treaty and the Civil War, Republicans saw both states in Ireland as being British imposed "imperialist" proxies. However, by the 1930s the bulk of the Civil War Anti-Treaty republicans had accepted the Irish Free state and entered its government as Fianna Fail. The remnants of the IRA continued to see themselves as the Army of the Irish Republic, temporarily suppressed by force of arms (though they too banned armed action by their members against the southern Irish state in 1948). They launched unsuccessful armed campaigns in England in the 1940s and in Northern Ireland in the 1950s aimed at achieving a United Ireland. The Irish Republican Army (1922-1969) and its political wing, Sinn Féin went through periodic splits, most dramatically in 1969 when two IRAs emerged, the Official IRA (OIRA) and the Provisional IRA (PIRA), along with two Sinn Féins; Sinn Féin - Gardiner Place or Official Sinn Féin and Sinn Féin - Kevin St or Provisional Sinn Féin.
While the "Official" republican movement wanted to move away from traditional physical force republicanism and towards Marxist political activism, the "Provisionals", reacting to the outbreak of communal violence in Northern Ireland known as the Troubles, wanted to first defend the Catholic population of the North from attack and then launch an armed offensive against British rule there. The PIRA proceeded to do this from 1969 until 1997 (see Provisional IRA campaign 1969-1997), when it called a ceasefire. The PIRA is responsible for roughly 1,800 deaths in the "Troubles". Its political wing, Sinn Féin has since entered negotiations towards a political settlement in Northern Ireland.
In 2005 Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams called on the Provisional IRA to move from physical force activity to exclusively democratic means.
"President of the Provisional Government", leader of the 1916 Rising.
The "Officials" eventually abandoned militarism altogether but not before spawning a militant splinter group, the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) in 1974 and its political wing the Irish Republican Socialist Party. The INLA is a Marxist revolutionary group and has carried out over 100 killings during the Northern Ireland conflict. It has been on ceasefire since 1998.
When Sinn Féin voted to recognise the Dáil of the Republic of Ireland and enter it (if elected) in 1985, a small group that included many of the founders of the Provisional movement broke away from Sinn Féin and the Provisional IRA and formed Republican Sinn Féin and its own small Continuity IRA. They continue to oppose both states in Ireland.
Another small splinter group emerged from the Provisional IRA in 1998, when it was clear that the organisation was preparing to accept a political solution short of a united Ireland. This group of disaffected PIRA members called themselves the Real IRA and want to continue "armed struggle" against British rule in Northern Ireland. Neither the CIRA nor the RIRA are believed to have the support, numbers or capability once possessed by the Provisional IRA.
[edit] Additional Reading
- Marianne Elliott, Robert Emmet: The Making of a Legend
- Hugh Gough, David Dickson (Eds), Ireland and the French Revolution
- Patrick Geoghegan, Robert Emmet: A Life (Gill and Macmillan) ISBN 0-7171-3387-7
- Jim Smyth, The Men of No Property: Irish Radicals and Popular Politics in the Late Eighteenth Century
- A.T.Q. Stewart, A Deeper Silence: The Hidden Origins of the United Irish Movement
- Tim Pat Coogan, The Troubles
- Robert Kee, Ireland: A History
- Joseph Lee, The Modernisation of Irish Society
- Dorothy McCardle, The Irish Republic
| Irish armed groups using the name Irish Republican Army |
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Irish Republican Army (Army of the Irish Republic) (1919–1922) |
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| Organisations known by the name in later years Irish Republican Army (1922–1969) | Official IRA (1969–present) | Provisional IRA (1969–present) | Continuity IRA (1986–present) | Real IRA (1997–present) |
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