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13 unusual facts about Irish Republican Army


An Stad

In 1938, a dissident Irish Republican Army (IRA) group, in an attempt to force the Irish Government to fight for full Irish independence (the 1921 treaty established only a "Free State", retaining the King of the United Kingdom as head of state and keeping Ireland within the British Commonwealth), attempted unsuccessfully to destroy Nelson's Pillar on O'Connell Street in Dublin, less than a mile from An Stad, which they saw as a symbol of continued British sovereignty in Ireland.

Cecil Allan

His mother died when he was four-years-old and his father, who had worked on the RMS Titanic, was killed as an innocent passer-by in a gun battle between the IRA and the Black and Tans.

Eithne Coyle

During the Irish War of Independence whilst Coyle was based in the Longford-Roscommon area she became a close comrade of the local Irish Republican Army, providing them with sketches of a local police station that she knew.

Ernesto Jaconelli

Whilst in Dublin he taught Shaun Bolger, who he later became a crack shot in the IRA.

Gurrane National School

Richard Barrett was and Irish Republican Army brigade staff officer and a commandmant of the West Cork Brigade during the War of Independence.

Marcus Ervine-Andrews

Ervine-Andrews attempted to return home to his native County Cavan after the war, but was driven out by local members of the IRA and later settled in Cornwall.

Mott Haven, Bronx

It was organized by Sean Oglaigh na hEirann, the veterans of the Irish Republican Army, who marched every Easter Sunday, down Willis Ave. from the Hub to E. 138th St.

Pádraig Ó Cuinn

Pádraig Ó Cuin (Pádraig Quinn; 1898 – August, 1974) was an Irish Republican Army Quartermaster General in the Fourth Northern Division in the Irish War of Independence.

Republican Army

Irish Republican Army, a military organisation descended from the Irish Volunteers

Strawberry Cake

An IRA bomb threat warning given as June Carter Cash started to sing "The Church in the Wildwood" meant the theatre had to be evacuated but the show continued after the building was searched.

The Diocese of Meath

The Irish Public Records Office was destroyed by the Irish Republican Army in 1922, in effect destroying one thousand years of records, including most of the records from that source quoted by Cogan.

Warrington Male Voice Choir

Following the IRA bomb attacks on Warrington town centre in 1993, the choir became involved in promoting peace and an end to violence in Northern Ireland.

Westham

Ian Gow (1937–90), politician, was assassinated at his home in Hankham by an IRA bomb.


Another Shore

Robert Beatty was a Canadian actor who had a major success playing an IRA man in Odd Man Out.

Arthur Ryan

In 1981, the IRA snatched department store boss Ben Dunne; two years later, they tried to kidnap Galen Weston, scion of the Canadian family behind Primark's owner, food and retail conglomerate Associated British Foods (ABF).

Ballylifford

He was a member of the Irish Volunteers and later the 3rd Western Division Flying Column of the Irish Republican Army.

Bogwoman

"Bogwoman" is a play on the term of abuse shouted at a Derry woman by the British Army; the term is a play on the word used to describe those women that live in the IRA stronghold of the Bogside in Derry.

Denis Howell, Baron Howell

On 28 October 1974, his wife and son escaped unharmed when an IRA bomb exploded in their Ford Cortina on the driveway of the family home in Birmingham.

Florence O'Donoghue

Florence O'Donoghue (1895–18 December 1967) was an Irish historian and head of intelligence of the Cork No. 1 Brigade of the Irish Republican Army during the Irish War of Independence.

George Joynt

Although not a member of the Irish Republican Army (IRA), he believed in the organization's intention of overthrowing both the Irish Free State and Northern Ireland and re-establishing the Irish Republic declared in 1919.

Milltown Malbay

On September 22, 1920 a RIC tender was ambushed there by Mid-Clare Brigade IRA mainly in retaliation for the killing of Martin Devitt at Crow's Bridge earlier in the year.

Nationalist terrorism

Irish Republican Army (1922–62) A split from the "old" IRA that opposed the Anglo-Irish Treaty that solidified the partition of Ireland following the Irish War of Independence.

Oscar Traynor

During the Irish War of Independence he was brigadier of the Dublin Brigade of the Irish Republican Army and led the attack on The Custom House in 1921 and an ambush on the West Kent Regiment at Claude Road, Drumcondra on 16 June 1921 when the Thompson submachine gun was fired for the first time in action.

Oswald Cornwallis

Their absence was allowed following the death of their brother, Lieutenant Fiennes Wykeham Mann Cornwallis who was killed in Ireland during the Irish War of Independence by the IRA.

Richard James Ayre

In 1988 the then Home Secretary Douglas Hurd banned Sinn Féin from the airwaves in response to Irish Republican Army bombing campaigns.

Seamus O'Donovan

Seamus (James or Jim) O'Donovan (3 November 1896 - 4 June 1979) was a leading volunteer in the Irish Republican Army and an operative of the Nazi Abwehr.

Shell Shaker

As the family gets closer and closer to the truth, involving tales of embezzlement, rape, money laundering, contributions to the Irish Republican Army and Mafia involvement, their lives become increasingly parallel to that of their ancestors.

State papers

Following the assassination of the British Field Marshal, Henry Hughes Wilson by anti-Treaty forces on 22 June, the pro-Treaty IRA came under pressure from Britain to attack the Four Courts or else British forces, still occupying Ireland, would take action.

The Secret Invasion

Criminal mastermind Rocca (Raf Vallone), demolitions expert and Irish Republican Army member Scanlon (Mickey Rooney), forger Fell (Edd Byrnes), cold-blooded murderer Durrell (Henry Silva), and thief and impersonator Saval (William Campbell) are offered pardons in exchange for attempting to rescue an Italian general sympathetic to the Allies from captivity in German-occupied Yugoslavia.

Timothy Coughlin

Timothy ("Tim") Coughlin (sometimes spelled "Couglan") (1906 - 1928) was a volunteer in the Irish Republican Army, mainly known for his part in assassinating Kevin O'Higgins in 1927 and for the controversy surrounding the circumstances of his death in 1928.