Official Irish Republican Army - The Official IRA Since 1972

The Official IRA Since 1972

Although formally on ceasefire (except for "defensive actions") since 1972 (see above), the Official IRA continued some attacks on British forces up until mid 1973, killing seven British soldiers in what it termed "retaliatory attacks". In addition, the OIRA's weapons were used intermittently in the ongoing feud with the Provisionals. This flared up into violence on several occasions, notably in October 1975, when the Provisionals sought out and shot Official IRA members in Belfast — 11 republicans on either side were killed in the feud; a nine year-old girl was also shot dead by the Provisionals when they tried to shoot her father.

In 1974, radical elements within the organisation who objected to the ceasefire, led by Seamus Costello, established the Irish National Liberation Army. Another feud ensued in the first half of 1975, during which three INLA and five OIRA members were killed. The dead included prominent members of both organisations including Costello and the OIRA O/C, Billy McMillen. However, from the mid-1970s onwards the Official Republican Movement became increasingly focussed on achieving its aims through left-wing constitutional politics. This however did not stop sporadic paramilitary activity from the OIRA who on 8 September 1979 killed Hugh O'Halloran in a punishment beating in the Ballymurphy area of Belfast. O' Halloran was beaten to death with hurley sticks. The two OIRA men who carried out the killing turned themselves in to the RUC; both were convicted and sentenced to imprisonment in the Maze. The army lost a number of members who gradually drifted away from the ceasefire up to shortly after the 1981 hunger strike, many either joining the Provisional IRA or the INLA or some simply dropping out.

From 1981 on, Sinn Féin the Workers Party, renamed the Workers' Party the following year, had some success in the Republic of Ireland, but little in the North.

Throughout the 1980s, allegations that the Official IRA remained in existence and was engaged in criminal activity appeared in the Irish press. In June 1982 the feud with the INLA flared again after OIRA member James Flynn, the alleged assassin of Seamus Costello, was shot dead by the INLA in Dublin. In December 1985 five men, including a Mr. Anthony McDonagh, pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy to defraud the Inland Revenue in Northern Ireland—McDonagh was described in court as an Official IRA Commander. In February 1992 a British Spotlight programme alleged that the Official IRA was still active and involved in widespread racketeering and armed robberies.

These eventually proved a considerable political embarrassment to the Workers' Party, and in 1992 the leadership proposed amendments to the party constitution which would, inter alia, effectively allow it to purge members suspected of involvement in the Official IRA. This proposal failed to obtain the required two-thirds support at the party conference that year, and as a result the leadership, including six of the party's seven members of Dáil Éireann, left to establish a new party, later named Democratic Left.

In 1995, some Northern based former Official IRA members in the Newry area launched a "re-founded" Official Republican Movement, intended to pursue the socialist republican politics which the Officials espoused in the 1970s. They are not thought to advocate the use of violence however and have no connection with the Workers' Party.

Most recently, there have been allegations of criminality against former senior Official IRA figure Sean Garland, who was accused in 2005 by the United States of helping to produce and circulate counterfeit US dollars allegedly printed in North Korea.