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Irish Republican Army
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Bobby Sands's funeral procession
Bobby Sands's funeral procession Masked members of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) escorting the coffin of hunger striker Bobby Sands in Belfast, Northern Ireland, May 7, 1981.

Irish Republican Army

Irish military organization
Also known as: IRA, Provisional Irish Republican Army
Written by
Kimberly Cowell-Meyers
Assistant Professor, Department of Government, American University, Washington, D.C. Author of Religion and Politics in the Nineteenth Century: The Party Faithful in Ireland and Germany.
Kimberly Cowell-MeyersAll
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Britannica Editors
Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree....
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•History

Irish Republican Army (IRA), republican paramilitary organization seeking the establishment of a republic, the end of British rule in Northern Ireland, and the reunification of Ireland. The IRA was created in 1919 as a successor to the Irish Volunteers, a militant nationalist organization founded in 1913. The IRA’s purpose was to use armed force to render British rule in Ireland ineffective and thus to assist in achieving the broader objective of an independent republic, which...

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