Oglaigh na hEireann (The Irish Republican Army): An Examination of How the IRA Manipulated British Security Forces in Ireland to Achieve Independence
Abstract
In order to successfully shake the yoke of the British Empire, one of the global superpowers of the early 20th century, Robert Taber, an investigative journalist and author, asserts that the rebel group had to ensure one of two things: either cause the colony of Ireland to be "too great a political embarrassment to be sustained domestically or, on the world stage, to be seen as unprofitable, too expensive, or no longer prestigious." The Irish Republican Army (IRA), the militant arm of the self-proclaimed Irish Nationalist's known as Sinn Fein (We Ourselves), employed a strategy that was so successful that it was the bedrock of Taber's writings on insurgency almost 80 years later. The core members of the newly-formed group known as the IRA had almost all been involved in the Easter Uprising only a few years earlier and before that many of them, including their celebrated leader Michael Collins, helped to found the Gaelic League m 1893. This association can be seen as the true start of the Irish Nationalist movement during the long twentieth century despite many previous attempts by the Irish to shake the rule of the British Crown. The Gaelic League was dedicated to reminding the Irish people of their Gaelic heritage and that they were a strong and fiercely independent people. However, this group remained non-violent until the Easter Uprising precipitated by the Military Service Act. In this one can begin to see the emergence of a pattern of violent Irish reaction to overbearing and heavy-handed military actions by the British government in Ireland. This convergence of violent rebellion and the rise in Irish nationalism created the perfect conditions for revolution.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Feb 10, 2014
- Accession Number
- AD1015048
Entities
People
- Conor F. Melanson
Organizations
- United States Air Force Academy