Provisional IRA Belfast Brigade - The Post-ceasfire Period

The Post-ceasfire Period

The ceasefire was reinstated in 1997 and has remained in force since then. For the most part, the IRA Belfast Brigade has not carried out armed actions. It has, however, used its arms on a few occasions. In late 1997 and early 1998, loyalist paramilitaries carried out a spate of killings of Catholic civilians in response to the killing of Billy Wright by the Irish National Liberation Army. The IRA in Belfast in retaliation killed a senior Ulster Defence Association paramilitary.

In 2004, the Brigade was accused of carrying out the Northern Bank robbery, the biggest ever robbery in the British Isles. This, however, has never been proven. Also in late 2004, suspected IRA members in the Short Strand killed a Catholic, Robert McCartney, in a pub brawl. Allegedly other IRA members destroyed the evidence of the killing and intimidated McCartney's relatives, who wanted the killers convicted.

In the summer of 2005, the IRA decommissioned much of its weaponry. Although no details of this process were disclosed, most of the Belfast Brigade's arms are thought to have been destroyed.