Republican Movement (Ireland)

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The Republican Movement is a collective term used to describe the Irish Republican Army (IRA) and other political, social and paramilitary organisations associated with it.

The term is not restricted to any one movement and can include:

and other organisations such as the An Cumann Cabhrach, Cabhair, Irish Republican Prisoners' Dependants Fund or the National Commemoration Committee.^{[citation needed]}

The term was in use at least as early as 1957 when the United Irishman reported:

"Jim Dolan, election agent for the successful Sinn Féin candidate John Joe Mac Fhearghaill, went on to say that in the course of the election campaign the Republican Movement had been at a great disadvantage because, as a result of arrests and internments, some of their very best speakers north and south had not been not been available to them."^[6]

J. Boywer Bell, in The Secret Army, uses the term throughout to refer to the several organizations associated with the IRA in the 1960s and beyond. For instance, in chapter XVII he says: "But beneath the smooth patina applied by MacGiolla, The Republican movement seethed with bitter faction and the advanced rot of despair." Specifically mentioned in relation to this are Sinn Féin, the Clan (Clan na Gael) in America, the United Irishman and the National Graves Association.^[7] Peter Taylor, although he himself uses the term to refer to the IRA and Sinn Féin, claims that Republicans use it to refer to the IRA only.^[8] However, a Sinn Féin 'members course' of around 1979 specifically states: "Sinn Féin is the political section of the Republican Movement".^[9] Martin McGuinness, interviewed by John Humphrys for the BBC, denied that he was then a member of the IRA but did not contadict Humphrys when he described him as "a leader of the Republican Movement".^[10] Similarly, Francie Molloy, chair of the National Commemorations Committee, in an interview with An Phoblacht, said that "the growth in the attendance at Bodenstown (the annual Wolfe Tone commemoration) is a reflection of the growth of the Republican Movement.^[11]

The distinction between the Republican Movement and the IRA itself assumed greater importance with the start of the Northern Ireland peace process, when Sinn Féin participation in the process was seen to be dependent on IRA actions or commitments. As Tom McGurk wrote in The Sunday Business Post in May 2001: "At the outset the most powerful ripple effect from the hunger strike was the recognition by both political establishments that while in the immediate context of continuing IRA violence there seemed no way to bring it about, nevertheless the republican movement has somehow to be brought into any settlement."^[12]