THE IRISH OBSERVER: Continuity IRA Who Are They?

Sunday, January 24, 2021

Continuity IRA Who Are They?

I often forget that a whole new generation of people have only Google to inform them about Sinn Fein/Provisional IRA and their variants. And as we all know, if you read the wrong website, you may well find yourself reading a fake narrative.

Continuity 2021

Continuity IRA members Fermanagh 2020

In 1985, I was an active member of Sinn Fein/PIRA, and Sinn Fein/PIRA was, once again, about to split. While many would claim that this was an ideological split, relating to the policy of Abstentionism, it was more about personalities, it was about Northern Command, under Gerry Adams, wrestling full control of Sinn Fein/PIRA from the ‘old’ Southern Command Staff, led by Ruairí Ó Brádaigh.

In Monaghan, we had known from 1985 that a split was looming, when we had selected our candidates for the local Government elections, old Southern Command members such as Jimmy McElwaine walked out of our election convention in 1985 with his delegation. While Jimmy sighted the selection of RUC Informer, Owen Smyth, to run for the local elections, as his reason for walking out, this was disingenuous.

Many members of Sinn Fein/PIRA had been allowed back into the ranks after turning Informer, they were simply not supposed to have access to information about PIRA operations.

Provisional IRA Army Convention 1986

In 1986 I was working politically with Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin and militarily with Jim Lynagh. Joe Cahill was based in Sinn Fein/PIRA Headquarters, at 44 Parnell Square, Dublin. Joe and others were preparing to ‘Gerrymander’ the much-anticipated PIRA Convention, where the divisive issue of Abstentionism would be discussed and division would be fully revealed.

I was a regular visitor to Sinn Fein/PIRA Headquarters and I was well acquainted with Joe Cahill. The Plan to oust the old Southern Command was to reduce their voting capacity at The PIRA Army Convention.

Gerrymandering at the Convention would be achieved by placing Sligo/Roscommon/Longford and Wicklow/Wexford/Waterford into two voting blocs. This amalgamation of six counties into two voting blocs would significantly reduce the voting capacity of Ruairí Ó Brádaigh at the Convention.

In September 1986 the stage was set for a show down between the old Southern Command and Northern Command under Gerry Adams. It would not be an unfair observation, to conclude that this power shift from the old Southern Command to Northern Command would have been mush welcomed by the British Security Services and their Agents at the Convention who voted in favour of the Adams leadership.

This meeting of the PIRA Convention in 1986 would be the first such meeting since the previous split in 1969, in 1969 the PIRA emerged from a split with the old Official IRA led by Cathal Goulding. Goulding wanted to pursue a campaign of social agitation rather than engage in all out sectarian violence.

Any suggestion that the PIRA Convention was not known to the Security Services, north and south, is the stuff of fantasy, the Convention was saturated with both Garda and British, Agents and Informers.

The core leverage that would be used to generate a split was the articles of the PIRA Constitution that dealt with Abstentionism. Abstentionism on this occasion was specifically related to Sinn Fein/PIRA members taking seats in Dáil Éireann (The Irish Parliament).

Adams knew that he had the two-thirds majority required to pass a motion that would allow members of the PIRA to discuss and debate taking parliamentary seats, and remove the Ban on members of the PIRA from supporting successful Sinn Fein/PIRA candidates who would take such seats.

The Provisional IRA Convention delegates who opposed to the change in the Constitution, correctly claimed that the Convention was gerrymandered, by the creation of new PIRA organisational structures for the Convention, including the combinations of Sligo/Roscommon/Longford and Wicklow/Wexford/Waterford.

Sinn Fein Ard Fheis 1986

In the run up to the 1986 Sinn Fein/PIRA Ard Fheis (National Party Conference) there was a flurry of activity within Sinn Fein/PIRA. Sinn Fein/PIRA Cumanns that existed on paper only were created to ensure that Gerry Adams had enough votes on the floor of the Ard Fheis to out maneuver the old Southern Leadership.

In Monaghan, such paper-based Sinn Fein/PIRA Cumanns would be represented by PIRA killers such as Hennessy McKenna, who had never contributed anything to Sinn Fein activity, even during elections, he and others would simply use the Sinn Fein/PIRA office in Monaghan as a place to eat bags of chips and boast about their murderous exploits.

Before the Ard Fheis some within Sinn Fein/PIRA made their position very clear, they would not stay with Sinn Fein/PIRA, they tried to convince younger members such as myself to be prepared to go with them, however, only a small number would eventually abandon the ranks of Sinn Fein/PIRA in Monaghan.

The stage was set for the Ard Fheis, Sinn Fein/PIRA who were loyal to the Leadership of Gerry Adams knew they had the numbers to oust the old Southern Command Leadership at the Ard Fheis. The policy of Abstentionism was now reduced to the status of tactic.

Republican Sinn Fein and Continuity IRA

The Provisional IRA Convention delegates who opposed the change in the Constitution correctly claimed that the Convention was Gerrymandered, by the creation of new PIRA organisational structures for the Convention, including the combinations of Sligo/Roscommon/Longford and Wicklow/Wexford/Waterford.

The only PIRA body that supported this viewpoint was the outgoing PIRA Executive. Those members of the outgoing Executive who opposed the change comprised a quorum. They met, dismissed those in favour of the change, and set up a new Executive. They contacted Tom Maguire, who was a Commander in the old IRA and had supported the Provisionals against the Official IRA, and asked him for support.

Maguire had also been contacted by supporters of Gerry Adams, then President of Sinn Féin and member of The PIRA Army Council, and a supporter of the change in the Provisional IRA Constitution.

Maguire rejected Adams' supporters, supported the IRA Executive members opposed to the change, and named the new organisers the Continuity Army Council. In a 1986 statement, he rejected "the legitimacy of an Army Council styling itself the Council of the Irish Republican Army which lends support to any person or organisation styling itself as Sinn Féin and prepared to enter the partition parliament of Leinster House."

In 1987, Maguire described the "Continuity Executive" as the "Lawful Executive of the Irish Republican Army." Initially, the Continuity IRA did not reveal its existence, either in the form of press statements or paramilitary activity. Although the Garda Síochána had suspicions that the organisation existed, they were unsure of its name, labelling it the "Irish National Republican Army".

On 21 January 1994, on the 75^th Anniversary of the First Dáil Éireann, Continuity IRA volunteers offered a "final salute" to Tom Maguire by firing over his grave, and a public statement and a photo were published in Saoirse Irish Freedom.

It was only after the Provisional IRA declared a ceasefire in 1994 that the Continuity IRA became active, announcing its intention to continue the campaign against British rule. The CIRA continues to oppose the Good Friday Agreement and, unlike the Provisional IRA (and the Real IRA in 1998), the CIRA has not announced a ceasefire or agreed to participate in weapons decommissioning, nor is there any evidence that it will.

In the 18^th Independent Monitoring Commission's report, the RIRA, the CIRA and the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) were deemed a potential future threat. The CIRA was labelled "active, dangerous and committed and capable of a greater level of violent and other crime". Like the RIRA and RIRA splinter group Óglaigh na hÉireann, it too sought funds for expansion. It is also known to have worked with the INLA.

The CIRA has been involved in a number of bombing and shooting incidents. Targets of the CIRA have included the British military, the Northern Ireland police (both the Royal Ulster Constabulary and its successor the Police Service of Northern Ireland) and Ulster loyalist paramilitaries.

Since the Good Friday Agreement in 1998 the PIRA, CIRA, RIRA along with other paramilitaries, have been involved with a countless number of mutilation shootings and beatings, as they take coercive control of their communities in order to expand their influence.

By 2005 the CIRA was believed to be an established presence on the island of Great Britain with the capability of launching attacks. A bomb defused in Dublin in December 2005 was believed to have been the work of the CIRA.

In February 2006, the Independent Monitoring Commission (IMC) blamed the CIRA for planting four bombs in Northern Ireland during the final quarter of 2005, as well as several hoax bomb warnings. The IMC also blamed the CIRA for the killings of two former CIRA members in Belfast, who had stolen CIRA weapons and established a rival organisation.

The CIRA continued to be active in both planning and undertaking attacks on the PSNI. The IMC said they tried to lure police into ambushes, while they have also taken to stoning and using petrol bombs. In addition, other assaults, robbery, tiger kidnapping, extortion, fuel laundering and smuggling were undertaken by the group. The CIRA also actively took part in recruiting and training members, including disgruntled former Provisional IRA members. As a result of this continued activity the IMC said the group remained "a very serious threat".

It is an illegal organisation in the Republic of Ireland and is designated a terrorist organisation in the United Kingdom, New Zealand and the United States. It has links with the political party Republican Sinn Féin (RSF).

Since 1994, the CIRA has waged a campaign in Northern Ireland against the British Army and the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI), formerly the Royal Ulster Constabulary. This is part of a wider campaign against the British security forces by dissident republican paramilitaries. It has targeted the security forces in gun attacks and bombings, as well as with grenades, mortars and rockets. The CIRA has also carried out bombings with the goal of causing economic harm and/or disruption, as well as many punishment attacks on alleged criminals.

To date, it has been responsible for the death of PSNI officers. The CIRA is smaller and less active than the Real IRA, and there have been a number of splits within the organisation since the mid-2000s.