The Official Irish Republican Army or Official IRA (informally "the Officials" or "the Stickies") is an Irish republican paramilitary group whose goal was to create a "32-county workers' republic" in Ireland. It emerged from a split in the Irish Republican Army in December 1969, shortly after the beginning of "The Troubles". The other group emerging from this split was the Provisional Irish Republican Army. Both groups continued to refer to themselves as the Irish Republican Army and rejected the political legitimacy of the other. It engaged in military action against the British Army until May 1972. Since then it has been involved in feuds with both the Provisional IRA and the Irish National Liberation Army, a radical splinter group formed in 1974. In later years, it was accused of involvement in organised crime.
The Official IRA was associated with Official Sinn Féin, later renamed Sinn Féin the Workers Party and then The Workers' Party, and now known as the Workers' Party of Ireland.
Read more about Official Irish Republican Army: Impact of The Split, The Official IRA Since 1972, Decommissioning, People Killed By The Official IRA
Famous quotes containing the words official, irish, republican and/or army:
“No sane local official who has hung up an empty stocking over the municipal fireplace, is going to shoot Santa Claus just before a hard Christmas.”
—Alfred E. Smith (1873–1944)
“Irish Americans are about as Irish as black Americans are African.”
—Bob Geldof (b. 1954)
“No one has ever seen a Republican mass meeting that was devoid of the perception of the ludicrous.”
—Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)
“Why not draft executive and management brains to prepare and produce the equipment the $21-a-month draftee must use and forget this dollar-a-year tommyrot? Would we send an army into the field under a dollar-a-year General who had to be home Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays?”
—Lyndon Baines Johnson (1908–1973)