Irish Republican Army (1922-1969)

:This article deals with the Irish republican organisation opposed to the Anglo-Irish Treaty, styling itself Irish Republican Army, as it existed from the time of the Treaty in 1921 to the split between the Official Irish Republican Army and the Provisional Irish Republican Army in 1969. See List of IRAs for a full list of organisations using the name.

Ideology of the post-Civil War IRA

The IRA considered itself to be upholding the Republic that was declared in the 1916 Proclamation, and held that the governments of the Irish Free State were illegitimate. It maintained that it remained the army of that Republic, in direct continuity with the IRA of the War of Independence period. It should be noted that there were several competing organisations on the radical republican side of Irish politics during this period. In addition to the IRA, these including the hardline elements of anti-Treaty Sinn Féin who had not followed de Valera into constitutional politics, and the rump of the anti-Treaty members of the Second Dáil, still proclaiming themselves the only legitimate Irish parliament. For most of this period, the IRA's relations with Sinn Féin were poor (IRA members were even forbidden to join the party), despite the reconciliation attempt represented by the 1929 Comhairle na Poblachta. In December 1938, a reconciliation finally took place between the IRA and the Second Dáil.

Related Topics:
Second Dáil - 1929 - Comhairle na Poblachta - 1938

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By the late 1930s at the latest, most Irish people disagreed with the residual Irish Republican Army's claims that it remained the legitimate 'army of the Republic'.

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