Irish National Liberation Army
The Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) is an Irish republican paramilitary organization which was formed on December 8, 1974. Sharing a common ideology with the Irish Republican Socialist Movement (a political wing, the Irish Republican Socialist Party (IRSP), was formed the same day). It enjoyed its peak of influence in the late 1970s and early '80s and is now one of a number of small armed republican groups in Ireland. It has been alleged that members have sometimes used the cover names CRF (Catholic Reaction Force) and the PRA (People's Republican Army) for operations the INLA did not want to claim, and that in its earliest days, the INLA was known as the PLA, or People's Liberation Army. During the PLA period, the group's purpose was primarily to protect IRSP members from attacks by the Official IRA.
Foundation
The founders of the INLA were Seamus Costello and other activists who had left or been forced out of the Official IRA in the wake of the OIRA's 1972 ceasefire and the increasingly reformist approach of Official Sinn Fein. Costello espoused a mixture of traditional republican militarism and Marxist-oriented politics. Shortly after it was founded, the INLA came under attack from their former comrades in the OIRA, who wanted to destroy the new grouping before it could get off the ground.
On 20 February 1975, Hugh Ferguson, an INLA member and an IRSP branch chairperson, was the first person to be killed in the feud. One of the first military operations of the INLA was the murder of Billy McMillen, a leading OIRA member in Belfast and this was followed by several more assassinations on both sides, the most prominent victim being Seamus Costello, who was shot dead on North Wall in Dublin on 6 October 1977. Costello's death was a severe blow to the INLA, as he was their most able political and military leader.
Armed campaign
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the INLA developed a modest organisation in the north of Ireland, particularly based around Divis Flats in West Belfast, which as a result became colloquially known as, "the planet of the Irps" (a reference to the IRSP and the film The Planet of the Apes). During this period, the INLA competed with the Provisional IRA for members, both groups attacking the British army and the Royal Ulster Constabulary. The first action to bring the INLA to international notice was its assassination on 30 May 1979 of Airey Neave, one of Margaret Thatcher’s closest political supporters.
The INLA lost another of its founding leadership in 1980, when Ronnie Bunting a rare Protestant Republican, was assassinated at his home by the Ulster Defence Association. Two other leading INLA members were also killed in this year, Miriam Daly and Noel Lyttle. The INLA claimed the SAS was involved in the killings. Offensive INLA actions at this time included the 1982 bombing of the Mount Gabriel radar station in County Cork, which was providing assistance to NATO, allegedly in violation of Irish neutrality; and the 6 December 1982 Ballykelly disco bombing of the Droppin' Well Bar in Ballykelly, County Londonderry, which catered to British military personnel, in which 11 soldiers and 6 civilians were killed. It emerged later at the trial that INLA members from Derry City had carried out several reconnaissance missions "to see if there were enough soldiers to justify the possibility of civilian killings".
Members of the INLA participated in the 1980 and 1981 hunger strikes for the recognition of the political status of paramilitary prisoners. Three INLA members died during the latter hunger strike - Patsy O'Hara, Kevin Lynch, and Michael Devine. In terms of prestige in Irish republicanism, this turned out to be the high water mark for the INLA.
On 20 November 1983, three members of the congregation in the Mountain Lodge Pentecostal Church, Darkley near Keady, County Armagh were shot dead during a Sunday service. The attack was claimed by the Catholic Reaction Force, a cover name for a small group of people, including one member of the INLA. The weapon used came from an INLA arms dump, but Tim Pat Coogan claims in his book The IRA that the weapon had been given to the INLA member to assassinate a known loyalist and the attack on the church was not sanctioned. The INLA's then chief of staff, Dominic McGlinchey, came out of hiding to condemn the attack.
Feuds and splits
In the 1980s, the INLA all but collapsed due to splits and criminality within its own ranks, as well as the conviction of many of its members under the British supergrass scheme. In 1987, the INLA and its political wing, the IRSP came under attack from the Irish People's Liberation Organisation (IPLO), an organisation founded by people who had resigned or been expelled from the INLA. The IPLO's initial aim was to destroy the INLA and replace it with their organisation. Five members of the INLA were killed by the IPLO. After the INLA killed the IPLO's leader, Gerard Steenson, a truce was reached. Although severely damaged by the IPLO's attacks, the INLA continued to exist. The IPLO, which was heavily involved in drug dealing, was put out of existence by the Provisional IRA in the early 1990s. So bad was the reputation of the INLA for feuding and criminality during this time that INLA slogans in republican areas were frequently defaced to read "I Never Leave Anything" and IRSP changed to "I Rob Shops and Post offices"
Shortly after the feud with the IPLO, in 1987 the INLA kidnapped a Dublin dentist, John O'Grady, and held him for ransom. The kidnap was led by Dessie O'Hare, better known as "The Border Fox". O'Hare cut off several of O'Grady's fingers to try and force his family to pay the ransom. Eventually, O'Hare was arrested by the Gardaí, O'Grady was released and another INLA member was killed in a shoot out with the Gardaí.
In 1995, four members of the INLA, including chief of staff Hugh Torney, were arrested by Gardai in Balbriggan while trying to smuggle weapons from Dublin to Belfast. Torney, with the support of two of his co-accused, called a ceasefire in exchange for favorable treatment by the Irish authorities. Since Torney, who was chief of staff,under the INLA's rules lacked the authority to call a ceasefire, he and the two men who supported him were expelled from the INLA.
Torney and one of those men, Dessie McCleery,and founder member John Fennell were not going to surrender the leadership of the organistion. Their faction, known as the INLA/GHQ, assassinated the new INLA chief of staff, Gino Gallagher. After the INLA killed both McCleery and Torney in 1996, the rest of Torney's faction quietly disbanded.
Recent activities
In December 1997, three members of the INLA imprisoned in Long Kesh assassinated LVF leader Billy Wright, also known as "King Rat."
The INLA declared a ceasefire on August 22, 1998. Although it does not support the Good Friday Agreement, it does not call for a return to armed struggle on behalf of republicans either. It maintains a presence in parts of Northern Ireland and has carried out punishment beatings on alleged local petty criminals.
The Independent Monitoring Commission which monitors paramilitary activity in Northern Ireland, claimed in its report of November 2004 that, the INLA is heavily involved in criminality, especially drugs trafficking. In 1999, the INLA in Dublin became involved in feud with a criminal gang in the west of the city. A young INLA man named Patrick Campbell was killed by drug dealers and the INLA has carried out several shootings in reprisal, including at least one killing. Irish journalist Paul Williams has also claimed the INLA, especially in Dublin, is now primarily a front for organised crime. The IRSP and INLA deny these allegations, arguing that no one has been simultaneously convicted of membership in the INLA and of drug offences. The IRSP and the INLA have both strongly denied any involvement with drug dealing, and stated that the INLA has threatened criminals which it claims have falsely used its name.
The INLA has recently claimed to have put at least two drugs gangs out of business in Northern Ireland. After their raid on a Derry-based criminal organization, they released a statement saying that "the Irish National Liberation Army will not allow the working class people of this city to be used as cannon fodder by these criminals whose only concern is profit by whatever means available to them."[1][2]
The October 2006 Independent Monitoring Commission (IMC) report stated that the INLA "was not capable of undertaking a sustained campaign [against the British State], nor does it aspire to".[3]
According to the Sutton database of deaths at the University of Ulster's CAIN project [1], the INLA was responsible for 113 deaths during the Troubles. Among its victims were 46 members of the British security forces, 42 civilians, 2 members of the Garda Síochána, 7 loyalist paramilitaries and 16 republican paramilitaries (including 10 of its own members).
References
Sources
- Jack Holland, Henry McDonald, INLA - Deadly Divisions
- CAIN project [2]
- Coogan, Tim Pat, The IRA, Fontana Books, ISBN 0-00-636943-X
- The Starry Plough - IRSP newspaper, online at http://www.irsm.org/irsp/starryplough/