Border campaign (Irish Republican Army)

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Border campaign
(Operation Harvest)
Irish border
Result

British victory

  • IRA campaign fails, hundreds of republicans interned
Belligerents Irish Republican Army

 United Kingdom

Commanders and leaders IRA Army Council
Seán Cronin
Ruairí Ó Brádaigh Insp.-Gen. Sir Richard Pim
Insp.-Gen. Sir Albert Kennedy (from 1961)Strength ~Around 200 Volunteers

United Kingdom Several thousand troops

2,800

12,500+Casualties and losses 8 IRA men killed, 4 republican civilians killed
Over 400 republicans interned in Northern Ireland, ~150 republicans interned in Republic of Ireland 6 RUC constables killed,
32 wounded

The border campaign (12 December 1956 – 26 February 1962) was a

Irish republican activists.[2][3] The campaign was a military failure, but for some of its members was justified as it kept the IRA engaged for another generation.[4]

Background

The border campaign was the first major military undertaking carried out by the IRA since the 1940s, when the harsh security measures of the

campaign in Northern Ireland. Internment on both sides of the border, as well as internal feuding and disputes over future policy, all but destroyed the organisation. These campaigns were officially called off on 10 March 1945. By 1947, the IRA had only 200 activists, according to its own general staff.[6]

In principle, the IRA wished to overthrow both "partitionist" states in Ireland, both Northern Ireland and the

recently proclaimed Republic of Ireland, amounting to a de facto recognition of the state. Under the new policy, IRA volunteers who were caught with arms in the Republic of Ireland were ordered to dump or destroy them and not to take defensive action.[7]

From then on, armed action was focused on Northern Ireland, which was still part of the United Kingdom and which was dominated by Protestant

Bodenstown repeated that IRA policy was directed solely against British forces in Northern Ireland.[11]

IRA Chief of Staff Tony Magan set out to create "a new Army, untarnished by the dissent and scandals of the previous decade," according to J. Bowyer Bell.[12] One of its advisers was a retired British Major-General, Eric Dorman-Smith. The IRA was officially "apolitical," existing only to overthrow the "British-imposed political institutions" in Ireland. However Magan believed that a degree of political mobilisation was necessary and the relationship with Sinn Féin which had soured during the 30s was improved.[13] At the 1949 IRA Convention, the IRA ordered its members to join Sinn Féin, which would partially become the "civilian wing" of the IRA.[14]

Re-arming

By the middle of this decade, moreover, the IRA had substantially re-armed. This was achieved by means of arms raids launched between 1951 and 1954, on British military bases in Northern Ireland and England. Arms were taken from

Bren guns and 40 training rifles. On 25 July 1953, there was an IRA arms raid on the armoury of the Officer Training Corps at Felsted, a private school in Essex. In that raid, the IRA netted over 108 rifles, ten Bren and eight Sten guns, two mortars and dummy mortar bombs. The police seized the van carrying the stolen weapons some hours later.[15]

By 1955, splits were occurring in the IRA, as several small groups, impatient for action, launched their own attacks in Northern Ireland. One such activist,

Roslea in County Fermanagh. One RUC man was badly injured and a Republican fighter was killed in the incident. In August of the following year, Kelly and another IRA dissident, Joe Christle
, burned down some customs posts on the border.

In November 1956, the IRA finally began its own border campaign. They were partly motivated by a desire to prevent any more splits in their organisation. They were also encouraged by the results of the UK general election of 1955, when Sinn Féin (since 1949, largely dominated by IRA members) candidates were elected MPs for the Mid-Ulster and Fermanagh and South Tyrone constituencies in Northern Ireland, with a total of 152,310 votes. This appeared to show that there was a substantial Irish republican support base within Northern Ireland. However, as the mainstream Nationalist Party had decided not to take part in the election, its supporters had voted for Sinn Féin instead.[16]

Planning the campaign

The plan for the border campaign – codenamed "Operation Harvest" – was devised by Seán Cronin. It envisaged the use of guerrilla units called flying columns, initially four units of about 50 men each. They were to operate from within the Republic of Ireland and to attack military and infrastructural targets within Northern Ireland. In addition, another twenty organisers were sent to various locations within Northern Ireland to train new units, gather intelligence and report back to the leadership in Dublin. An IRA document probably seized in Dublin in a raid on Cronin's flat, on 8 January 1957, stated that the aim of the campaign was to: "break down the enemy’s administration in the occupied area until he is forced to withdraw his forces. Our method of doing this is guerrilla warfare within the occupied area and propaganda directed at its inhabitants. In time as we build up our forces, we hope to be in a position to liberate large areas and tie these in with other liberated areas – that is areas where the enemy’s writ no longer runs".[17]

No actions were to take place in Belfast, the capital and biggest city in Northern Ireland. It was excluded because Paddy Doyle, the Belfast operational commander and a member of the Army Council, was arrested and the unit was disorganised,[18] although Hanley and Millar attribute the non-participation of the Belfast IRA to fears that informers had access to the IRA's plans.[19] There was also a desire not to provoke reprisals by loyalists against the Catholic/nationalist population there. This had happened on a large scale in 1920–22, during and after the Irish War of Independence.

The campaign

1956

On 12 December the campaign was launched with simultaneous attacks by around 150 IRA members on targets on the Border in the early hours.

B-Specials post near Newry and a half-built Army barracks at Enniskillen
was blown up. A raid on Gough barracks in Armagh was beaten off after a brief exchange of fire.

The IRA issued a statement announcing the start of the campaign, "Spearheaded by Ireland’s freedom fighters, our people have carried the fight to the enemy…Out of this national liberation struggle a new Ireland will emerge, upright and free. In that new Ireland, we shall build a country fit for all our people to live in. That then is our aim: an independent, united, democratic Irish Republic. For this we shall fight until the invader is driven from our soil and victory is ours".

Roman Catholic hierarchy, many units were given absolution before going out on operation.[23]
On 14 December: an IRA column under
Roslea
RUC barracks on the same day were beaten off. On 21 December: In response to the statement the government of Northern Ireland under Basil Brooke used the Special Powers Act to intern several hundred republican suspects without trial. Over 100 men were arrested on 12 January 1957.[24] This, in time, severely limited the IRA's capacity to build up units within Northern Ireland. On the evening of December 30, the Teeling Column under Noel Kavanagh attacked the Derrylin RUC barracks again, killing RUC constable John Scally, the first fatality of the campaign. Others involved in that attack included two prominent IRA men, Charlie Murphy and Ruairí Ó Brádaigh.[25]

1957

The year 1957 was the most active year of the IRA's campaign, with 341 incidents recorded.[26]

The most dramatic attack of the whole campaign took place on 1 January: 14 IRA volunteers, including Séan Garland, Alan O Brien, Paddy O'Regan and

B Specials and British soldiers.[27]
The funerals of South and O’Hanlon in the Republic produced a strong emotional reaction among the general public there. The two men are still considered martyrs in Irish Republican circles.[28] Up to 50,000 people attended their funerals.[29]

Commemorative plaque to the Edentubber Martyrs, killed in November 1957

Shortly afterwards the Republic's government, led by John Costello of Fine Gael, feared that the IRA's action would drag it into a diplomatic confrontation with Britain. It used the Offences Against the State Act to arrest most of the IRA's leadership, including its Chief of Staff, Seán Cronin. Clann na Poblachta (led by former IRA Chief of Staff Seán MacBride) withdrew its support for the government in protest over this policy. In the ensuing Irish general election, 1957, Sinn Féin won four seats and polled 65,640 votes (c. 5% of those cast), while Clann na Poblachta's vote dropped sharply. However, Clann na Poblachta were very weak originally in the constituencies where Sinn Féin fielded candidates.

The new government, of Fianna Fáil, led by Éamon de Valera proved even more hostile to the IRA than its predecessor. In July 1957, after the killing of an RUC man, de Valera introduced wholesale internment without trial for IRA suspects. The use of internment on both sides of the Irish border made it impossible for the IRA, most of whose leadership was imprisoned, to maintain the momentum of their campaign.

On 11 November: The IRA suffered its worst loss of life in the period when four of its members died preparing a bomb in a farm house at Edentubber, County Louth, which exploded prematurely. The civilian owner of the house was also killed.[30] It is believed they were going to attack an empty customs post and electricity pylons in Northern Ireland. They would later be referred to by republicans as the "Edentubber Martyrs".[31]

1958 -1960

By 1958, the campaign's initial impetus had largely dissipated. Certain IRA activities produced public hostility and by 1958, there were already many within the IRA in favour of calling the campaign off. The Cork IRA, for instance, had effectively withdrawn.[26] By mid-1958, 500 republicans were in gaol or interned, North and South. The decline in activity meant that the Fianna Fáil government in the South felt confident enough to end internment in March 1959.[32] Following their release, some of the interned leaders met Sean Cronin in a farmhouse in County Laois and were persuaded to continue the campaign "to keep the flame alive".[33] In 1960, the number of incidents fell to just 26. Moreover, many of these actions consisted of minor acts of sabotage, for example the cratering of roads.[34]

That summer two IRA men were killed in separate gun battles with the RUC on the border in County Fermanagh, Aloysius Hand in July and James Crossan in August.[35]

The period after the summer of 1958 saw a steep drop in the intensity of the IRA campaign. That the IRA's campaign had run its course by 1960 is testified by the fact that the Republic of Ireland's government closed the Curragh Camp, which housed internees in the South, on 15 March 1959 (judging them to be no further threat).[36] The Northern Irish government followed suit on 25 April 1961.

1961

In November 1961 An RUC officer, William Hunter, was killed in a gun battle with the IRA in south County Armagh. This was the final fatality of the conflict. Minister for Justice, Charles Haughey reactivated the Special Criminal Court, which handed down long prison sentences to convicted IRA men.

End of the campaign

By late 1961, the campaign was over. It had cost the lives of eight IRA men, four republican supporters and six RUC members. In addition, 32 RUC members were wounded. A total of 256 Republicans were interned in Northern Ireland in this period and another 150 or so in the Republic. Of those in Northern Ireland, 89 had signed a pledge to renounce violence in return for their freedom.

Although it had petered out by the late 1950s, the campaign was officially called off on 26 February 1962. In a press release issued that day, drafted by Ruairí Ó Brádaigh who consulted with several other persons including members of the Army Council, the IRA Army Council stated:

The leadership of the Resistance Movement has ordered the termination of the Campaign of Resistance to British occupation launched on 12 December 1956. Instructions issued to Volunteers of the Active Service Units and of local Units in the occupied area have now been carried out. All arms and other matériel have been dumped and all full-time active service volunteers have been withdrawn... Foremost among the factors motivating this course of action has been the attitude of the general public whose minds have been deliberately distracted from the supreme issue facing the Irish people – the unity and freedom of Ireland. The Irish resistance movement renews its pledge of eternal hostility to the British Forces of Occupation in Ireland. It calls on the Irish people for increased support and looks forward with confidence – in co-operation with the other branches of the Republican Movement – to a period of consolidation, expansion and preparation for the final and victorious phase of the struggle for the full freedom of Ireland.

The statement was released by the Irish Republican Publicity Bureau and signed "J. McGarrity, Secretary."[37]

Implicit in the statement was a recognition that the IRA, after a promising start in 1957, had failed to mobilise much popular support behind its campaign.

In popular culture

Aftermath

The border campaign was considered a disaster by some IRA members, not least because it enjoyed practically no support from the nationalist population of Northern Ireland. Even before the campaign ended some within the organisation had begun to consider other avenues in pursuit of the organisation's goals. Many of those involved with the border campaign felt that their lack of support was due to a failure to address the social and economic issues faced by ordinary people. The early seeds of addressing such issues are found in Sinn Féin election materials in the late 1950s and early 1960s.[clarification needed]

The larger unionist population in Northern Ireland was further alienated from Irish republicanism by the campaign, and considered that its internment policy had worked. However, the policy was to fail when it was repeated in the 1970s.

Official IRA, as led by Goulding, also engaged as Belfast defenders. A key difference is that, ultimately, the Provisionals also wanted to re-build the IRA's military capacity to launch a new armed campaign.[41]

The Officials and Provisionals went their separate ways in 1969. The

Provisional IRA campaign 1969–1997
, which was to claim up to 1,800 lives.

References

  1. ISBN 978-0-19-517753-4
    ), page 73
  2. ^ As found in the IRA statement ending the campaign in February 1962, presented in J. Bowyer Bell, The Secret Army, 1979.
  3. ^ Similarly, Sean Cronin, IRA Chief of Staff at various points during the campaign, titled his account of the 1956–57 period "Resistance – The story of the struggle in British-Occupied Ireland,"Book reprinted in IRIS – The Republican magazine, issue number 20, summer 2007, ISSN 0790-7869, under the pen-name Joe McGarrity
  4. ^ see Tim Pat Coogan, "Jail journal of a 'last hurrah' republican," The Sunday Business Post Online, 13 January 2008
  5. ^ McKenna, J. (2016). The IRA Bombing Campaign Against Britain, 1939-1940. McFarland, Incorporated Publishers. Jefferson NC, p. 138. ISBN 9781476623726
  6. ISBN 0-552-13337-X
    p. 37.
  7. ^ J. Bowyer Bell, The Secret Army, 1979, p. 266.
  8. ^ Bowyer Bell, p. 246.
  9. ISBN 0-330-49388-4
    .
  10. ISBN 0-14-101041-X
    .
  11. ISBN 0-00-636943-X
    .
  12. ^ J. Bowyer Bell, The Secret Army, 1979, p. 246
  13. ISBN 1-84488-120-2
    , pp. 3
  14. ^ J. Bowyer Bell, The Secret Army, pp. 247–48.
  15. ^ "THE WAY WE WERE: No pomp or ceremony as keys for Gough Barracks are handed back". Archived from the original on 23 April 2019. Retrieved 26 March 2018.
  16. ISBN 0-415-09161-6
  17. ^ The document seized at Cronin's was titled, "General Directive for Guerrilla Campaign. Bell, The Secret Army, pp. 300–301; Bishop, Mallie, the Provisional IRA, page41
  18. ^ Bell, The Secret Army, p. 285 and note 17, p. 287-88.
  19. ^ Hanley and Miller, The Lost Revolution: The Story of the Official IRA and the Workers' Party, p.15
  20. ^ Hanley and Miller, The Lost Revolution: The Story of the Official IRA and the Workers' Party, p.14
  21. ^ Hanley and Miller, p.14
  22. ^ Bishop, Mallie, page 41
  23. ^ Hanley and Miller, pp.14–15
  24. ^ Hanley and Millar, p.15
  25. ^ Robert White, Ruairi O Bradaigh, p. 61.
  26. ^ a b Hanley, Millar, p.17
  27. ^ J. Bowyer Bell, The Secret Army, p. 299.
  28. ^ Richard English Armed Struggle, 'two newly minted martyrs killed in the assault and subsequently celebrated in balladry and romantic imagination ' p.74
  29. ^ Bishop, Mallie, Provisional IRA, p.43
  30. ^ English, Armed Struggle, p74
  31. ^ "Memorial for IRA bombers splits opinion in Enniscorthy". The Irish Times. Archived from the original on 7 November 2016. Retrieved 26 March 2018.
  32. ^ Hanley, Millar, p.17-18
  33. ^ Hanley, Millar, p.18
  34. ^ Mallie, Bishop, p45
  35. ISBN 9780330475785. Archived
    from the original on 22 September 2021. Retrieved 21 September 2020.
  36. ^ J.B. Bell, The Secret Army, pp. 325–26.
  37. ^ The United Irishman, March 1962, p. 1; see also Bishop, Mallie, page 45, M.E. Collins, Ireland 1968-1966, page 464, Richard English, Armed Struggle page 75.
  38. ^ "Irish Film & TV Research Online - Trinity College Dublin". www.tcd.ie. Archived from the original on 7 November 2016. Retrieved 26 March 2018.
  39. ^ "Irish News - Veteran Irish journalist and producer Paul Waters on his debut novel Blackwatertown". 19 August 2020. Archived from the original on 22 September 2021. Retrieved 16 September 2020.
  40. ^ Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine: "Sean South of Garryowen". YouTube.
  41. ^ J. Bowyer Bell, The Secret Army

Further reading

Soldiers of Folly – The IRA Border Campaign 1956–1962, by Barry Flynn, published by The Collins Press, October 2009

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Border_campaign_(Irish_Republican_Army)&oldid=1216037938"