The Irish Republican Army was a resistance group against British imperialism and fought for Irish sovereignty, something that the Irish have dealt with for hundreds of years. The IRA was most active from the late 60s, throughout the 70s and ended their activity in the 90s.
Early on the IRA split into two factions; the “official” IRA and “provisional” IRA. The split, as you all know about Socialist and Communist movements, happened because of fundamental ideological differences. The official IRA had Marxist Leninist leadership and the provisional IRA was made up of more traditional leadership, more interested in a traditional sovereign Irish Republic; having Ulster Protestantism as their religion. The traditional leaders of course didn’t like the idea of Marxist Leninists leading the charge but the Marxists analysis of their situation led them to realize that a United front would be preferable goal to attain sovereignty.
Why did Ireland become such a hotbed of revolution in the west? Ireland represented a long history of a heavily exploited and oppressed peoples. Victims of the British Empire. The IRA represented one of the most advanced Proletariat of the west European countries. A people who have been at the centers of contradiction. Contradiction between the powerful and wealthy exploitive British Empire against the smaller Ireland; a fundamental contradiction which would feed into discrimination, racism, prejudices. The contradiction between the Protestant England and Catholic Irish, the contradiction English bourgeoisie and Irish bourgeoisie mostly loyal to the United Kingdom.
The IRA, and specifically it’s Marxist Leninist faction (we can learn from the more traditionalist faction as well) like the Black Panther Party in the United States were Proletarians in the west powers that led the most active and advanced in revolutionary theory for the conditions of the western imperialist powers. The IRA should be studied especially for English and Scottish Proletariat to understand their struggles, and how their struggles went from riots and demonstrations to armed struggle. We should learn their mistakes and victories. Studying Marx and Lenin and Mao are very important but studying the most advanced movements in our respective countries, US and UK would allow us to synthesize our theory according to past existing struggles and current struggles.
I believe that we should probably look more to Ireland and its struggle for independence; they’re arguably the most successful Western independence and ML movement in Western Europe.
Just for some further context, the IRA actually goes back at least to the 1916 revolutionary uprising when several groups came together and seized key buildings across Dublin. The Rising was an anticipated failure. There weren’t enough people or arms or organisation but the leaders chose to go ahead anyway to make a stand and inspire the country. There were originally going to be multiple uprisings across the country but almost all were cancelled in last minute chaos. The Brits sent in the army, took back control, and executed the leaders. Many of those executed are worth studying. Particularly James Connolly was an explicit Socialist Theorist and actually has many works up on marxists.org , as well as to this day being the name of the Irish Communist Party’s youth wing; the Connolly Youth Movement (CYM).
After the Rising, the IRA conducted strategic terrorism toward British officers under the direction of Michael Collins, who had also fought in the Rising. An Irish Republic was declared in 1919 and by 1921 the Brits were under enough pressure to concede partial sovereignty, resulting in the treaty which split the island under partition. Since 1922 Ireland remains split between the ‘Irish Free State’ which consists of 26/32 of Ireland’s counties & the 6 in the north-east which remained part of the ‘United Kingdom’. The 20’s were a very dark time of bitter Civil War in Ireland between revolutionary factions who couldn’t agree over the treaty; some seeing it as abandoning those in the North & others seeing it as a necessary step toward later independence. Collins himself championed the latter position and was assassinated by anti-treaty forces in 1922, despite his having been one of the most successful conductors of guerrilla warfare of all time. The violence eventually withered away as so many Irish killed each other.
In 1937 the Free State had established clear independence, having actually conducted trade war with Britain during the Great Depression & a new constitution was adopted, effectively declaring a republic though this wouldn’t be clarified legally until 1949. The IRA existed in various forms throughout all of this and there were actually many splits before the Official/Provisional one in 1969. There is just a TONNE of theory & praxis to study in Irish political history. Revolutionary uprisings happened throughout the 19th century and even earlier. The island was the testing lab for many imperialist policies that would then be exported across the world. The detailed history of the IRA and the broader republican movement (who seek to this day a 32-county Socialist Republic) is little taught or talked about even in Ireland simply because of sheer trauma(and of course imperialist propaganda). There have been many many factions and movements and uprisings and theorists and everything you can think of in Ireland. Every Imperialist evil has been suffered and every method of resistance attempted. The proletariat of the West would benefit greatly from dissecting it all properly.