The IRA 195669

Rethinking the Republic

By (author) Matt Treacy

Publication date:

01 April 2011

Length of book:

224 pages

Publisher

Manchester University Press

Dimensions:

234x156mm

ISBN-13: 9780719084720

While there have been many books written about the IRA since 1916, comparatively little attention has been paid to the organisation during the 1960s, despite the fact that the internal divisions culminating in the 1969 split are often seen as key to the conflict which erupted that year. This book, now available in paperback, rederesses that vacuum and through an exhaustive survey of internal and official sources, as well as interviews with key IRA members, provides a unique and fascinating insight into radical Republican politics which will be of interest to those interested in Irish history and politics.

The author looks at the root of the divisions which centred on conflicting attitudes within the IRA on armed struggle, electoral participation and socialism. He argues that while the IRA did not consciously plan the northern 'Troubles', the internal debate of the 1960s had implications for what happened in 1969.

Contents
Acknowledgements
Introduction
1. The 1956 - 1962 armed campaign and the reorganisation of the IRA
2. The ideology of traditional Republicanism
3. Abstentionism and the growth of internal divisions
4. The Wolfe Tone Society and the Communists
5. 1966 and the revival of the IRA ‘Threat’.
6. Towards the National Liberation Front
7. The northern crisis and the split
Epilogue
Bibliography

This valuable and detailed work by Dáil Éireann researcher Matt Treacy assesses that critical and often neglected period for the Irish Republican Army and Sinn Féin, between the launch of the ultimately futile Border Campaign of 1956-1962 and the outbreak in earnest of the Troubles in Northern Ireland in 1969.