CIRA

CIRA planning series of armed raids in the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland




By theirishobserver.blogspot.com



When Continuity IRA was formed following the Ruari O’Bradaigh lead split from the Provisional IRA in 1986, Continuity IRA and their political mouth-piece Republican Sinn Fein were nothing more than old men with tired old ideas. While O’Bradaigh alleged the split was over the principle of abstention the reality was that the split was over egos and personality differences, since the split with the PIRA, Continuity IRA have been an ineffective splinter grouping and Republican Sinn Fein have made little progress with only a couple of RSF local authority councillors elected to over see bin collection and street cleaning services. Since the formation of the Real IRA by Michael Mc Kevitt, Liam Campbell and other disgruntled PIRA members, CIRA have collaborated with the Real IRA in order to carry out atrocities such as the Omagh Bomb.



Now however, I am reliably informed, that the Continuity IRA membership in the north, which has now been strengthened by former members of the PIRA and INLA, has taken control of the Continuity IRA. This coup-de-tat would have met with little resistance from the southern leadership, many of whom are now pensioners, in Portlaoise Prison or so engrossed with and benefiting from crime in Limerick, Dublin and Cork they have little time for concepts such as a united Ireland.



CIRA remains a toothless tiger; the real threat from this new northern command is its cooperation with the RIRA who are continuing to build on their engineering and weapons capacity. The Real IRA through their contacts with criminal gangs in the Irish Republic have been able to access weapons mainly from Eastern Europe that are brought in with drugs and illegal cigarette shipments for the criminal gangs including the ‘dissidents’. CIRA have effectively gone native with the Dundon/Mc Carthy drug dealers in Limerick and the same could be said for many of their members in Dublin and Cork. The new northern command which is following the same path as Adams and Mc Guinness in terms of reducing the organisation and basing its leadership in the north, are in dire need of funds. While they have access to small weapons that they have obtained through their criminal links, they have no real fire power and as a stand alone organisation pose a small threat.



Many of those now on the new northern lead command are former members of the PIRA and some are related by blood to senior members of Sinn Fein. CIRA will use vulnerable children to fill their ranks and indeed they have already blooded a couple of youngsters by bringing them on mutilation attacks within the Catholic ghettos of Belfast and Derry, as have the RIRA. Some of the new northern leadership have educated themselves while serving lengthy prison sentences for PIRA activity and more recently some have served sentences for ‘dissident’ activity. The CIRA are disgruntled and dissatisfied with Sinn Fein/IRA, however, they are not a serious threat to the ‘peace process’. While the CIRA murdered Constable Stephen Carroll last year they have no capacity to sustain any kind of stand alone campaign, they must work with and engage with the RIRA who have grown in strength in recent times due to the influx of PIRA and INLA members to their ranks.



Many within CIRA have profited from the conflict in terms of making money from smuggling and other forms of criminality, however, they will continue to hang a flag around their neck to try and give legitimacy to their criminality. The old guard of the CIRA/Republican Sinn Fein have totally disregarded the new northern leadership and those within the ranks of the old guard suggest in whispered tones that the newly declared northern leadership is riddled with security agents who like the PIRA leadership are simply trying to take the organisation north in order to surrender it. We have to wait and see how many of the CIRA who originally broke away with O’Bradaigh in 1986 will offer allegiance to the new northern leadership, it is expected that north Louth and Donegal will continue to offer support to the northern faction, however, this is an opportunity for those members of CIRA working alongside criminal gangs in our major cities to simply focus on filling their personal coffers.



The newly styled northern leadership wants to make its mark, and that mark will not be made by selling smuggled cigarettes at three pound a packet in the Ardoyne, Armagh City or the Bogside, and so the CIRA intend to raise much needed funds by carrying out cash in transit and other high risk-high reward robberies both in the north and the Republic. If such robberies are successful the money will be used to buy weapons from eastern European sources, through sources already established through criminal gangs in the Republic. The problem with this dependence on criminal fraternity is that it will be a road riddled with touts, informers, agents and profiteers, all of which will lead to the eventual vaporisation of the ‘dissident’ threat. The seven man Army Council of the CIRA is now made up of five members from the north and two from the Republic, this is a flip of the Council under the old leadership. It is estimated that CIRA has about 200 members; however, as stated above the majority of these, particularly in the Republic are engaged in criminal activity and are easily monitored.



After much internal wrangling under the old guard, particularly in relation to the use of CIRA funds for personal use, the newly formed northern leadership met in the holiday resort of Bettystown in County Meath in the Irish Republic, in June of this year, and held an extraordinary army convention. At this meeting a 12 member ruling executive was elected and this elected body appointed the new seven man Army Council. Those present at the Convention in Bettystown were able to claim to represent the majority of volunteers and therefore they had the Constitutional authority to do business. This however is simply following in the foot-steps of Mc Guinness and Adams who wrestled control of the Sinn Fein/IRA leadership from O’Bradaigh in 1986 by way of a recruitment drive in the run up to the 1986 Ard Fheis, many Cumman that voted at that Ard Fheis existed on paper only. This CIRA convention in Bettystown was heavily represented by northerners who had recruited significant numbers of what can only be described as children in Belfast and Derry.



The new northern leadership of the CIRA have already set in motion plans for fund raising, while smuggling and other forms of less profitable criminality will continue to be part and parcel of their funding regime, they are now to focus resources on getting their hands on serious money, this type of money can only come from cash in transit and other such high risk - high reward robberies. For now the CIRA will continue to be the tail wagged by the RIRA dog.



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