It is well known that the gradual development of the conflict determined the formation of paramilitary clandestine organizations. It is necessary to go back at least two centuries to trace their origins. In fact, it is during the course of the 1800’s, amidst a climate of nationalistic ideals diffused by the American war of independence and the French revolution that the independent aspirations of the Irish reach maturity and the movement for the liberation of their island assumes many of the political-operative connotations which have marked its history.
Two centuries disseminated with heroes and victims, hate, blood and violence of extraordinary and often, useless ferocity; errors of judgement, myopic political strategies which left in their wake hundreds of thousands of victims on both sides. A bloody conflict which now, most would like to see ended.
The following deals with the most significant stages in the development of the Irish republicanism, with particular reference to the origins of the IRA; a ruthless, feared and respected independent catholic organization which made headlines for its undeniable military-operative efficiency, rigorous secretiveness and impenetrability, but above all, for its unshakable dedication to the cause.


The Great Famine; its impact and consequences

In 1800, the Act of Union sanctions the creation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. In 180l, the new Union Flag is adopted, which unlike the preceding one, incorporates the cross of St. Patrick, symbolizing the occasion and definitive inclusion of Ireland in the Union.
During the arc of time between 1802 and 1922, the entire island of Ireland, now an Integral part of the United Kingdom, was governed directly from Parliament in London.
In the first half of the 1800’s, the general conditions of poverty and submission in which the population of this island lived under British government, contributed greatly to fuel the desire for independence.
The social hardships of the Catholics, notwithstanding the Catholic Emancipation campaign, pushed ahead by Daniel O’Connel after the unification, for certain fundamental civil rights and for the abolition of discriminatory laws(1), continued to be profoundly felt. The strengthening of the Church of England, strongly supported throughout the kingdom, reserved undoubted privileges for its followers.
In 1846, in an already difficult picture, a devastating socio- economic event occurs. The great famine or potato blight hits the Irish rural areas with such violence that it sweeps away an entire class of farmers and farm workers, practically annihilating the rural population of the island.
The politicians in power in London at the time (the Prime Minister was Robert Peel) oriented towards a laissez-faire political-economic attitude with respect to Ireland, to a non-interference policy, contributed in a decisive way, to transform a serious problem into a catastrophe: 750,000 people die and, at least, one million emigrate.
It was, in fact, the absolutely pitiless attitude of the central government towards the Irish tragedy that indelibly marks the population and further fuels the profound anti-English sentiment. The potato famine triggers mass emigration to the United States, Canada, Australia and naturally, to England, putting down the bases of what will, in time, become a vast and influential Irish diaspora destined to play a key role in the battles which follow.
In particular, it is the Irish community in the United States, developed and consolidated from both the political and economic standpoints, which will guarantee constant logistic, political and financial support to movements for independence back in the home country.


The Fenian Brotherhood and
the Irish Republican Brotherhood

In the second half of the 1800’s, a significant contribution to the revolutionary challenge is given by the so-called Fenian Brotherhood and the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB), the embryonic stages of the secret and paramilitary movements in the struggle for independence.
The IRB, a secret society, made up mainly of lay(2) and working class people, is founded by the tireless Irish activist, James Stephens in 1858 in Paris, where he had fled after a failed insurrectional attempt in Ireland in 1848.
A corresponding clandestine group, The Fenian Brotherhood, is created soon after in Chicago in the United States by another man from the 1848 rebellion, John O’Mahony who established himself in New York, after fleeing the mother-country.
A profound scholar of the Celtic culture, he names his movement after the Fianna Eireann, the legendary army of Irish warriors led by Fionn mac Cumhail whose heroic deeds, which go back to the third century, are celebrated in the epic Fenian cycle.
The Celtic roots and the Gaelic language (the Celts of Ireland called themselves Gaels), have constituted reference marks and symbols of national identity throughout the history of the Irish nationalistic movement.
The rediscovery and appreciation of the Gaelic language has always led the Irish to aspire to a totally de-anglicized culture(3) and this is the reason why the English prohibited the use of the language. Infringement punishable by imprisonment!
Stephens and O’Mahony, in continuous contact, maintain close ties also with numerous nationalistic radicals at home and abroad with an end view of realizing the principal objective of the trans-oceanic movement: the creation of a League of IrishmenIrish Independent Republic. From the organizational aspect, the IRB is conceived after the Jacobin model of the French revolution (even creating a Committee of Public Health in Paris) and is rigidly compartmentalized to satisfy the obsession of Stephens regarding the infiltration of English spies, a common occurrence in all other nationalistic formations.
Stephens institutes a complicated internal security system, articulating the organization into a series of water-tight compartments. One affiliate only has contact with one member only of another group. This form of compartmentalization is able to impede the infiltration of British agents for a very long time.
The IRB is structured as a Supreme Council of eleven members representing the seven districts in which the organization is active: the Irish province of Ulster, Munster, Leinster and Connacht, together with Scotland and England of the north and the south. Another four members are recruited from the outside. The completed Council then elects three members to be responsible for the management and administration of the organization: a president, a secretary and a treasurer.
The swearing-in oath of the Irish Republican Brotherhood has changed several times during the course of its history, but the best-known is probably the following:
“Before God, I……. do solemnly swear to do everything within my power to achieve the independence of Ireland, to be faithful to the Supreme Council of the Irish Republican Brotherhood, to obey my superiors and all the rules of the Irish Republican Brotherhood and to maintain inviolate the secrets of the organization".
The motto of the IRB is “Sinn Fein” in Gaelic, which means “We alone” in English and expresses the will to restore to the Irish people the government of their country. For these characteristics, the IRB is considered the forerunner of the IRA(4).


The failure of the fenians

The Fenians very soon spread to Australia, South America, Canada, but above all, to the United States and the large English cities: London, Manchester and Glasgow, where Stephens from 1863 started to circulate his Irish People, a revolutionary and extremely violent newspaper, produced in Dublin.
For two years, from the pages of the Irish People, Stephens promotes the armed rebellion and continually reminds the Irish of the existence of the Fenian Brotherhood, or Clan na Gael in the United States, calling to arms anyone with a minimum of military training, those of the kind, for example, who had fought in the American civil war.
The plan was to attack the British in Ireland and North America contemporaneously, with raids in British Canada by the United States Fenians, to start in 1866, with the hope of being able to barter the control of Canada for the liberation of Ireland.
Benefiting from United States support and from a very popular recruitment, the IRB is able, in a very short time, to amass several thousand activists. Also, thanks to the return home, at the end of the American civil war, of many well armed compatriots, the work to organize a popular revolt begins.
The irony of the situation is that the nightmare of Stephens comes true. The revolt, planned for the 5th of March, 1867, is betrayed on the eve of the 4th, when the Irish-American general who was to command the insurrection is arrested on the information of a spy who had revealed the entire plan to the British. The rebellion, therefore, is very easily quashed and all the protagonists arrested. Stephens manages to save himself by fleeing to the United States.
For the first time, in 1865, the Fenians had utilized the denomination, Irish Republican Army, (IRA), to indicate their military structure and this denomination will be destined to countersign a clandestine army which, in the successive decades will represent the heart of Irish republican movement.
It will be taken up again after The Easter Rising of 1916, to indicate the corps of Irish Volunteers, engaged in the war of independence 1919-1921 and successively, again in the Irish civil war of 1922-1923, to indicate the paramilitary corps who assembled those activists who were contrary to the treaty of 1922 which sanctioned the separation of Ireland into two parts.
There is, therefore, no doubt about the Fenian origin of the modern IRA, even if the lay-protestant matrix of Fenianism, although it has never expressed anti-clerical sentiments, brought it to be considered a threat to both the British government and the Catholic church.
Notwithstanding the failure of the IRB in 1867, it does not detract from its role as one of the most important movements in the struggle against the British Empire, in the evolution of Irish republicanism and in the formation of modern Ireland. What will go down in history is its strong rebellious and radical character which, although never guaranteeing them a strong popular support , it will, in time, influence some of the most prominent representatives of the cause – among whom are Patrick Pearse, Eamon de Valera and Michael Collins.


The Easter of Blood and the British Reaction

The name of the Fenians will not only be connected with the failed revolt of 1867, brutally and easily crushed by the British, but tragically, will also remain tied to the insurrection which passed into history as The Easter Rising of 1916. In fact, since 1904, the Irish Republican Brotherhood had reassembled in view of the reorganization of the Unionist paramilitary corps (The Nationalist Party of Sinn Fein was founded in 1905).
The circumstances which brought about the revolt are extremely complex, not only from the historical, social and political points of view, but also and, above all, from a psychological viewpoint.
In fact, in 1914, with the beginning of the First World War, thousands of Irish, as thousands had already done before them, signed up to fight in the ranks of His Majesty’s army, probably, without even knowing why.
The leaders of the IRB instead, do ask themselves why and decide to exploit the circumstances according to the motto “the difficulties of England are opportunities for Ireland”.
A secret council is formed and among the members are the old Fenian, Tom J. Clarke, the poet of the Gaelic rebirth and pedagogue, Padraig H. Pearse, the syndicalist James Connolly, fervid supporter of the armed struggle. Contacts are made with Germany to obtain arms necessary for an efficacious insurrection.
The arms supply falls through, but the leaders go ahead, notwithstanding. The revolt assumes the characteristics of a suicide. Pearse and the others are perfectly aware of the reality of the situation, but they nurse the hope that they can contribute, in any case, to revitalize the Irish cause which has taken on less importance due to the war. History will prove them right…, but the price will be appallingly high!
The Easter of 1916, nevertheless, became a mile-stone in the history of the Irish Republican movement. The insurgents on the steps of the Central Post Office of O’Connel Street in the centre of Dublin, proclaim the Republic of Ireland in both Gaelic and English, backed up by the Irish Republican Army and raise, for the first time, beside the green flag with the golden harp on which had been sewn the words, ‘ The Republic of Ireland’, the tricolour, orange, white and green flag of Ireland.

The rebellion, neutralized after one week, sees the imprisonment of three thousand volunteers, their leaders will all be condemned to death; but the pitiless summary executions exasperate the population who, even though they had not supported them, cause the fermentation, in an exponential way, of anti-British sentiment.
The Irish writer, Sean O’Faolain writes as follows: “ the Easter revolt was a complete failure…..but yet, without it, Ireland would never have freed itself of the British yoke. In fact, the leaders of the revolt, when alive, complained of a poor following, even among their own people, but when dead, they became national heroes and have always remained so. It was an historical paradox which, perhaps, the British have still not understood. If they had understood, it is probably that they would still have an empire today. In fact, the failure to maintain dominion in Ireland represents the beginning of the end of British power”.
Two men saved from the execution squad were to play a fundamental role in the destiny of Ireland: Eamon de Valera and Michael Collins. The latter is liberated in the December of the same year and begins to recruit men for the reorganization of what will become the most efficient clandestine armed group of all Europe: The Irish Republican Army (IRA).


The anglo-irish treaty of 1921 and the birth
of the modern IRA

The IRA which originated in 1919 from many different groups who had fought against the British, in particular, the Irish Volunteers and the Irish Citizen Army, will represent, for all purposes, the first nucleus of the paramilitary group which, under the leadership of Collins, will play a crucial role during the years of the war of Irish independence from 1919-1922.
With the Anglo-Irish Treaty of the 6th December, 1921, negotiated by Collins in London with the Prime Minister, Lloyd George and approved by the Irish parliament, the Dail Eireann, on the 7th January, 1922, with only a difference of seven votes (64 to 57) six north-eastern counties of Ireland, Antrim, Down, Fermanagh, Tyrone, Derry and Aramgh, enter to become part of the United Kingdom. The remaining 26 (the Free State) receive the status of dominion. Two parliaments are created; one in Belfast and one in Dublin, both under the control of London.
As had happened before with the Sinn Fein, the IRA members become divided over the Anglo-Irish Treaty, which creates a Free State in Ireland, but deprives it of the 6 northern counties of Ulster.
The break is dramatic, between 1922 and 1923, the two factions: the minority faction, led by Michael Collins, favouring the treaty and the majority faction, led by Eamon de Valera, against the treaty, fight a bitter and terrible civil war. In the August of 1922, Collins succumbs and the Free State forces prevail, but a part of the IRA continues to recruit and carry out armed actions both in Ireland and in Great Britain.
It is, however, at the end of the 60’s that its activities assume specific significance.
It is when the protests of the Northern Irish catholic communities explode - penalized by the policy of the London government to favour the protestants – that the IRA takes the form known to people today, on many occasions striking at the very heart of the British establishment.
The declaration of 28th July, 2005, with the announcement by the organization of their wish to give up the armed struggle, in favour of negotiations for the pursuit of their objectives, should now inaugurate a new phase in its history.