Irish People's Liberation Organisation

Last updated

Irish People's Liberation Organisation
Leaders Jimmy Brown, Gerard Steenson
Sammy Ward (IPLOBB Leader), Martin O'Prey
Dates of operation1986 – May 1992
Split from Irish National Liberation Army
Group(s) Republican Socialist Collective (political wing)
Active regionsIreland
Ideology Irish republicanism
Left-wing nationalism
Revolutionary socialism
Size150–200
OpponentsFlag of the United Kingdom.svg United Kingdom Ulster loyalist paramilitaries
Provisional IRA
Irish National Liberation Army
Battles and wars The Troubles

The Irish People's Liberation Organisation was a small Irish socialist republican paramilitary organisation formed in 1986 by disaffected and expelled members of the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA), whose factions coalesced in the aftermath of the supergrass trials. It developed a reputation for intra-republican and sectarian violence as well as criminality, before being forcibly disbanded by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) in 1992.

Contents

Some of the IPLO's most notable attacks during its short existence were:

On 1 May 1990 the IPLO became a proscribed organisation by the British government. [3] Although officially disbanded, the IPLO retains that classification under the Terrorism Act 2000. [4] [ failed verification ]

Foundation

The IPLO emerged from a split within the INLA. After the 1981 Irish hunger strike, in which three of its members died, the INLA began to break apart. The INLA virtually dissolved as a coherent force in the mid-1980s. Factions associated with Belfast and Dublin fell into dispute with each other. When INLA man Harry Kirkpatrick turned supergrass, he implicated many of his former comrades in various activities and many of them were convicted on his testimony.

Members both inside and out of prison broke away from the INLA and set up the IPLO. Some key players at the outset were Tom McAllister, Gerard Steenson, Jimmy Brown and Martin "Rook" O'Prey. Jimmy Brown formed a minor political group, known as the Republican Socialist Collective, which was to act as the political wing of the IPLO. [5]

The IPLO's initial priority was to forcibly disband the Irish Republican Socialist Movement from which it had split, and most of its early attacks reflected this, being more frequently against former comrades than on the security forces. The feud with the INLA lasted from 1986 to 1987 and resulted in the deaths of 12 people including IPLO leader Gerard Steenson who was shot in March 1987. [6]

Internal feud

The IPLO was accused of becoming involved in the illegal drug trade, especially in ecstasy. Some of its Belfast members were also accused of the prolonged gang rape of a North Down woman in Divis Flats in 1990. [7] Many of its recruits had fallen out of favour with the IRA and the portents for its future were not good. Sammy Ward, a low-level IPLO member, broke away from the main body of the organisation with a few supporters when the IPLO were severely depleted and weak in Belfast. His faction attacked the rest of the IPLO, culminating in the killing of Jimmy Brown. A full-scale feud followed between two factions terming themselves "Army Council" (formerly led by Jimmy Brown) and "Belfast Brigade" (led by Ward), which led to the 3000th killing of the Troubles, Hugh McKibben, a 21-year-old "Army Council" man. Brown had been the previous victim when he was shot dead in West Belfast on 18 August 1992. [8] This feud was described by the IPLO's critics as a lethal squabble over money and drugs.

Disbandment

The Provisional IRA – by far the largest armed republican group in Ireland – decided to attack and remove the IPLO, given its involvement in the drug trade and due to increasingly provocative actions by the IPLO towards the Provisional IRA. On Saturday 31 October 1992, in an event that was later dubbed "Night of the Long Knives" by locals in Belfast, [9] the IRA attacked the two IPLO factions in Belfast, killing the breakaway Belfast Brigade leader Sammy Ward in the Short Strand. [10] There were also raids on pubs and clubs where IPLO members were kneecapped. On 2 November 1992 the second-in-command of the IPLO Belfast Brigade formally surrendered to the Provisional IRA Belfast Brigade adjutant, which brought an end to the group in Belfast. [11]

Outside Belfast the IRA did not attack any IPLO units and issued statements absolving the IPLO units in Derry, Newry and Armagh from any involvement in the drugs trade that was alleged against those in Belfast. In Dublin the IRA reprieved the IPLO Chief of Staff in return for surrendering a small cache of arms held in Ballybough. [11]

The IPLO also had a presence in Strabane, [12] and in Munster; like the INLA drawing its support from the Cork, Limerick, and Shannon areas. [13] Reportedly the group had also established small support bases in Continental Europe including France, Belgium, and the Netherlands. [14]

Casualties

According to the Sutton database of deaths at the University of Ulster's CAIN project Archived 24 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine , the IPLO was responsible for 22 killings during the Troubles. Among its victims were twelve civilians, six INLA members, two loyalist paramilitary figures, a Royal Navy reservist, and one member of the British security forces, a Royal Ulster Constabulary constable.

List of attacks and actions

1986

1987

1988

1989

1990

1991

1992

1997

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Irish National Liberation Army</span> Irish republican paramilitary group formed in 1974

The Irish National Liberation Army is an Irish republican socialist paramilitary group formed on 8 December 1974, during the 30-year period of conflict known as "the Troubles". The group seeks to remove Northern Ireland from the United Kingdom and create a socialist republic encompassing all of Ireland. With membership estimated at 80–100 at their peak, it is the paramilitary wing of the Irish Republican Socialist Party (IRSP).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Red Hand Commando</span> Ulster loyalist paramilitary group

The Red Hand Commando (RHC) is a small secretive Ulster loyalist paramilitary group in Northern Ireland that is closely linked to the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF). Its aim was to combat Irish republicanism – particularly the Irish Republican Army (IRA) – and to maintain Northern Ireland's status as part of the United Kingdom. The Red Hand Commando carried out shootings and bombings, primarily targeting Catholic civilians. As well as allowing other loyalist groupings to claim attacks in their name, the organisation has also allegedly used the cover names "Red Branch Knights" and "Loyalist Retaliation and Defence Group". It is named after the Red Hand of Ulster, and is unique among loyalist paramilitaries for its use of an Irish language motto, Lámh Dearg Abú, meaning 'red hand to victory'.

Jimmy Brown was a militant Irish republican and drug dealer who was a member of Fianna Eireann, the Official IRA, then Irish Republican Socialist Party (IRSP)/ Irish National Liberation Army (INLA), and latterly of the Irish People's Liberation Organisation (IPLO).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Troubles in Portadown</span>

This article recounts the violence and other effects related to The Troubles in Portadown, County Armagh, Northern Ireland. Much of it has been related to the Drumcree parade dispute.

The Troubles in Armagh recounts incidents during The Troubles in Armagh City, County Armagh, Northern Ireland; the violence was substantial enough for a stretch of road on the outskirts of the city to be referred to by one RUC officer as "Murder Mile". Over the course of the Troubles, although mainly concentrated in the years from 1969 until 1994, the small city of around 15,000 people, including some outlying areas, saw 86 deaths, including those of a number of people from the city who lost their lives elsewhere in Troubles-related incidents.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Protestant Action Force</span> Cover name for Ulster Volunteer Force

The Protestant Action Force (PAF) was a cover name used by Ulster loyalist paramilitary group the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) when claiming responsibility for a number of attacks during the Troubles in Northern Ireland. Sometimes these actions were carried out with the assistance of members of the security forces. The name "PAF" was first used in 1974 and attacks by individuals claiming to be members of the PAF killed at least 41 Catholic civilians. All of the attacks claimed by the PAF in Armagh and Tyrone counties from 1974 to 1976 have been linked to the Glenanne gang, which was a loose coalition consisting of members of the UVF Mid-Ulster Brigade along with rogue Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR) soldiers and Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) police officers. A six-year period of no attacks claimed by the PAF ended in 1982; during the 1980s, the PAF claimed 15 attacks in the Belfast area and two in County Armagh. UDR soldiers were convicted of two attacks in Armagh. The PAF claimed its last attacks in the early 1990s, all of which were in north Armagh and were alleged to involve members of the security forces.

This is the Timeline of Irish National Liberation Army actions, an Irish republican socialist paramilitary group. Most of these actions took place as part of its 1975–1998 campaign during "the Troubles" in Northern Ireland. The INLA did not start claiming responsibility for its actions under the INLA name until January 1976 at which point they had already killed 12 people, before then they used the names People's Liberation Army (PLA) and People's Republican Army (PRA) to claim its attacks.

This is a timeline of actions by the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), an Ulster loyalist paramilitary group since 1966. It includes actions carried out by the Red Hand Commando (RHC), a group integrated into the UVF shortly after their formation in 1972. It also includes attacks claimed by the Protestant Action Force (PAF), a covername used by the UVF. Most of these actions took place during the conflict known as "the Troubles" in Northern Ireland.

The 1991 Cappagh killings was a gun attack by the loyalist Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) on 3 March 1991 in the village of Cappagh, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. A unit of the UVF's Mid-Ulster Brigade drove to the staunchly republican village and shot dead three Provisional IRA members and a Catholic civilian at Boyle's Bar.

John "Bunter" Graham is a long-standing prominent Ulster loyalist figure. Born in the Lower Shankill, Graham rose quickly through the ranks of the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), joining other UVF leaders at a rally at Stormont in 1974 to celebrate the collapse of power sharing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1994 Shankill Road killings</span>

The 1994 Shankill Road killings took place on 16 June 1994 when the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) shot dead three Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) members – high-ranking member of the UVF Belfast Brigade staff Trevor King and two other UVF members, Colin Craig and David Hamilton – on the Shankill Road in Belfast, close to the UVF headquarters. The following day, the UVF launched two retaliatory attacks. In the first, UVF members shot dead a Catholic civilian taxi driver in Carrickfergus. In the second, they shot dead two Protestant civilians in Newtownabbey, who they believed were Catholics. The Loughinisland massacre, two days later, is believed to have been a further retaliation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Darkley killings</span> Mass shooting near Darkley, County Antrim (1983)

The Darkley killings or Darkley massacre was a gun attack carried out on 20 November 1983 near the village of Darkley in County Armagh, Northern Ireland. Three gunmen attacked worshippers attending a church service at Mountain Lodge Pentecostal Church, killing three Protestant civilians and wounding seven. The attackers were members of the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) acting on their own. They claimed responsibility using the cover name "Catholic Reaction Force", saying it was retaliation for recent sectarian attacks on Catholics by the loyalist "Protestant Action Force". The attack was condemned by the INLA leadership.

On 2 October 1975, the loyalist paramilitary group the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) carried out a wave of shootings and bombings across Northern Ireland. Six of the attacks left 12 people dead and around 45 people injured. There was also an attack in a small village in County Down called Killyleagh. There were five attacks in and around Belfast which left people dead. A bomb which exploded in Coleraine left four UVF members dead. There were also several other smaller bombs planted around Northern Ireland but other than causing damage they did not kill or injure anyone.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Central Bar bombing</span> Terrorist attack in Gilford, Northern Ireland

The Central Bar bombing was a bomb attack on a pub in the town of Gilford near Portadown in County Down in Northern Ireland on 31 December 1975. The attack was carried out by members of the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) using the covername "People's Republican Army" although contemporary reports also said the "Armagh unit" of the "People's Republican Army" had claimed responsibility. Three Protestant civilians were killed in the bombing.

The Official IRA's Belfast Brigade was founded in December 1969 after the Official IRA itself emerged in December 1969, shortly after the beginning of the Troubles, when the Irish Republican Army split into two factions. The other was the Provisional IRA. The "Officials" were Marxist-Leninists and worked to form a united front with other Irish communist groups, named the Irish National Liberation Front (NLF). The Brigade like the pre-split IRA brigade before the split had three battalions, one in West Belfast, one in North Belfast and the third in East Belfast. The Belfast Brigade was involved in most of the biggest early confrontations of the conflict like the Falls Curfew in 1970, the battles that followed after the introduction of Internment without trial in 1971 and Volunteers joined forces with the Provisional brigade to fight the British Army and UVF during the Battle at Springmartin in 1972. The first Commanding Officer (CO) of the brigade was veteran Billy McMillen who fought during the IRA Border Campaign. Shortly after the death of Official IRA Belfast "Staff Captain" Joe McCann in April 1972, the battalion structure of the brigade was done away with and command centralized under McMillen.

The following is a timeline of actions during The Troubles which took place in the Republic of Ireland between 1969 and 1998. It includes Ulster Volunteer Force bombings such as the Dublin and Monaghan bombings in May 1974, and other loyalist bombings carried out in the 1970s, '80s and '90s, the last of which was in 1997. These attacks killed dozens of people and injured hundreds more. Also actions carried out by Irish republicans including bombings, prison escapes, kidnappings, and gun battles between the Gardaí (police) and the Irish Defence Forces against Republican gunmen from the Irish National Liberation Army, the Provisional Irish Republican Army, and a socialist-revolutionary group, Saor Éire. These attacks killed a number of civilians, police, soldiers, and republican paramilitaries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Irish National Liberation Army Belfast Brigade</span> Irish republican and socialist paramilitary in Belfast 1974-1998

The Irish National Liberation Army Belfast Brigade was the main brigade area of the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA). The other Brigade areas were in Derry which was split between two battalions, the first in Derry City, and the second battalion in south County Londonderry and County Armagh which was also split into two battalions, a south Armagh and a north Armagh battalion, with smaller units in Newry, east and west County Tyrone and south County Fermanagh.

This is a timeline of actions by the Official Irish Republican Army, an Irish republican & Marxist-Leninist paramilitary group. Most of these actions took place as part of a Guerrilla campaign against the British Army & Royal Ulster Constabulary and internal Irish Republican feuds with the Provisional IRA & Irish National Liberation Army from the early 1970s - to the mid-1970s during the most violent phase of "the Troubles" in Northern Ireland.

A pub bombing or a public house bombing is an attack on a pub or public house using explosives and other bombing making material like nails, bolts, screws and similar objects which can cause horrific injuries when the bomb detonates. The Provisional IRA's Balcombe Street Gang used bolts and screws in many of their bomb attacks in the mid-1970s. Neo-nazi David Copeland used nails in his bombs.

Martin "Rook" O'Prey was an Irish republican and a Volunteer in both Irish republican and Revolutionary socialist paramilitary groups, first the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) and later the Irish People's Liberation Organisation (IPLO). He was killed by Ulster Loyalist paramilitaries from the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) in August 1991.

References

  1. "CAIN: Victims: Memorials: Search Results Page".
  2. "CAIN: Chronology of the Conflict 1987". cain.ulster.ac.uk.
  3. https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/lords/1990/may/01/northern-ireland-emergency-provisions Northern Ireland (Emergency Provisions) Act 1978 (Amendment) Order 1990: HL Deb 1 May 1990 vol 518 cc976-9
  4. "Proscribed Organisations". Terrorism Act 2000 (sched. 2). UK Public General Acts. Vol. 2000 c. 11. 20 July 2000. Archived from the original on 21 January 2013.
  5. "Irish Nationalist & Irish Republican political groups". Archived from the original on 18 August 2011.
  6. "Terrorists' split could erupt into bloody feud: Violence in Northern". The Independent. 22 August 1992.
  7. Ballymurphy and the Irish War by De Baroid p. 331
  8. INLA – Deadly Divisions by Holland and McDonald, Torc (1994), p. 334
  9. INLA Deadly Divisions Jack Holland p. 342
  10. INLA Deadly Divisions Jack Holland p. 341
  11. 1 2 INLA Deadly Divisions Jack Holland p. 343
  12. 1 2 Strabane Chronicle, 21 November 1992.
  13. Evening Echo, 9 December 1987.
  14. Irish Independent, 12 December 1989.
  15. Jack Holland & Henry McDonald, INLA – Deadly Divisions, 1994 p.279
  16. Jack Holland & Henry McDonald, INLA – Deadly Divisions, 1994
  17. 1 2 Irish Independent, 1 December 1986
  18. "CAIN: Victims: Memorials: Search Results Page". cain.ulster.ac.uk.
  19. Jack Holland & Henry McDonald, INLA – Deadly Divisions, 1994, p. 279
  20. "CAIN: Sutton Index of Deaths". cain.ulster.ac.uk.
  21. "CAIN: Chronology of the Conflict 1986". cain.ulster.ac.uk.
  22. Jack Holland & Henry McDonald, INLA – Deadly Divisions, 1994, p. 285-286
  23. "Guerrilla Group Feud Heats Up with Two More Killings". Associated Press News.
  24. Belfast Telegraph, 23 December 1986
  25. "CAIN: Sutton Index of Deaths". cain.ulster.ac.uk.
  26. 1 2 3 INLA – Deadly Divisions by Holland and McDonald, Torc (1994)
  27. 1 2 3 "CAIN: Sutton Index of Deaths". cain.ulster.ac.uk.
  28. Clines, Francis X. (29 March 1987). "A Dozen Die as Ulster's Rebels Feud". The New York Times.
  29. "'Burn Catholics' man was in UVF". BBC News. 23 August 2006. Retrieved 6 July 2023. A hardline former DUP councillor murdered by republicans in Belfast in December 1987 was in the loyalist paramilitary UVF, it has been revealed:.- Glasgow-born George Seawright, who was expelled from the party in 1984 for sectarian comments, was shot in Belfast by an INLA splinter group, the IPLO.
  30. "CAIN: Sutton Index of Deaths". cain.ulster.ac.uk.
  31. Fortnight Magazine , Issue 258, p. 17. Fortnight Publications, 1988.
  32. Fortnight Magazine , Issue 260, p. 18-19. Fortnight Publications, 1988.
  33. Belfast Telegraph 9 March 1988.
  34. 1 2 Belfast Telegraph 27 July 1988.
  35. Jack Holland & Henry McDonald, INLA – Deadly Divisions, 1994, p. 310
  36. 1 2 3 4 Sunday Tribune, 14 August 1988.
  37. 1 2 3 4 Jack Holland & Henry McDonald, INLA – Deadly Divisions, 1994, p. 367
  38. Aberdeen Press and Journal, 13 August 1988.
  39. Holland, Jack; McDonald, Henry (1994). INLA Deadly Divisions.
  40. 1 2 "CAIN: Sutton Index of Deaths". cain.ulster.ac.uk.
  41. Sunday Tribune, 9 October 1988.
  42. Belfast Telegraph, 23 December 1988.
  43. 1 2 "CAIN: Sutton Index of Deaths". cain.ulster.ac.uk.
  44. Jack Holland & Henry McDonald, INLA – Deadly Divisions, 1994, p. 314
  45. Galvin, Anthony (11 April 2012). Blood on the Streets A Murderous History of Limerick. Mainstream Publishing. ISBN   9781780577074.
  46. 1 2 Belfast Telegraph, 8 June 1989.
  47. Belfast Telegraph, 1 June 1989.
  48. Irish Independent, 24 August 1989.
  49. "Inside Ulster". BBC Rewind.
  50. Irish Press, 4 September 1989.
  51. Irish Press, 7 September 1989.
  52. Irish Independent, 13 December 1989
  53. "Belfast Man Arrested in Holland". RTÉ Archives.
  54. Sunday Life, 18 March 1990.
  55. 1 2 "CAIN: Sutton Index of Deaths". cain.ulster.ac.uk.
  56. Dundee Courier, 16 July 1990.
  57. Irish Press, 21 March 1990.
  58. "The Northern Ireland (Emergency Provisions) Act 1978 (Amendment) Order 1990". Archived from the original on 7 October 2008.
  59. Jack Holland & Henry McDonald, INLA – Deadly Divisions, 1994, p. 315
  60. Sunday Tribune, 20 October 1991.
  61. "William Sloss Killed By IPLO". RTÉ Archives.
  62. 1 2 3 4 Sunday Tribune, 13 October 1991.
  63. Ulster Star, 21 December 1990.
  64. Ulster Star, 4 January 1991.
  65. "CAIN: Peter Heathwood Collection of Television Programmes – Search Page". cain.ulster.ac.uk. Retrieved 31 August 2020.
  66. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Jack Holland & Henry McDonald, INLA – Deadly Divisions, 1994, p. 368
  67. Irish Independent, 1 February 1992.
  68. 1 2 3 4 5 "CAIN: Sutton Index of Deaths". cain.ulster.ac.uk.
  69. "CAIN: Sutton Index of Deaths". cain.ulster.ac.uk.
  70. Fortnight Magazine , Issue 298, p. 26-29. Fortnight Publications, 1991.
  71. 1 2 Fortnight Magazine , Issue 299, p. 30-31. Fortnight Publications, 1991.
  72. Lister, David; Jordan, Hugh (19 April 2013). Mad Dog: The Rise and Fall of Johnny Adair and 'C Company'. Random House. ISBN   9781780578163 via Google Books.
  73. "CAIN: Sutton Index of Deaths". cain.ulster.ac.uk.
  74. Sunday Life, 13 October 1991.
  75. Dundee Courier, 26 October 1991.
  76. Sunday Tribune, 22 December 1991.
  77. "CAIN: Sutton Index of Deaths". cain.ulster.ac.uk.
  78. Jack Holland & Henry McDonald. INLA: Deadly Divisions. Poolbeg, 2010. p.320
  79. 1 2 3 4 "CAIN: Sutton Index of Deaths". cain.ulster.ac.uk.
  80. Irish Independent, 13 April 1992.
  81. McDonald, Henry; Holland, Jack (29 June 2016). "I.N.L.A – Deadly Divisions". Poolbeg Press Ltd via Google Books.
  82. Sunday World, 21 June 1992.
  83. Sunday Times, 5 July 1992.
  84. "Inside Ulster". BBC Rewind.
  85. Sunday Tribune, 13 September 1992.
  86. Irish Independent, 21 June 1992.
  87. Fortnight Magazine , Issue 311, p. 24-25. Fortnight Publications, 1992.
  88. Evening Herald, 19 September 1992.
  89. "Bombed out shell of "The Waterfront" pub|Belfast MS Ditto| MS Ditto|..." Getty Images. 10 May 2017.
  90. Sunday Tribune, 4 October 1992.
  91. "CAIN: Chronology of the Conflict 1997". cain.ulster.ac.uk.