ABSTRACT
Northern Ireland has been engaged in an ongoing sectarian conflict and terrorist campaign since 1968. The main protagonist is/was the IRA, a terrorist group with a history going back to 1917, and before this in other guises. In 1970 the IRA split between the Official and Provisional wings and since then the Provisionals’ (PIRA) have been the main terrorist group. Other terrorist groups have existed, such as INLA, Real IRA and Continuity IRA on the Catholic/Nationalist side and they and their supporters are usually referred to as Republicans, denoting their hard line commitment to an all-Ireland Republic. On the Unionist/Protestant side there are the UFF, UFV and UDA and a variety of other minor groups, referred to as Loyalists (‘loyal’ to their fellow Protestants and what they regard as a covenant entered in to with their state).1 Loyalists, while often nasty and vicious do not pose a real threat to the state and, in security terms, are seen more as a policing problem. In effect the last 37 plus years have been about a terrorist campaign waged by the PIRA, to force the removal of Northern Ireland from the UK into an all-Ireland state. Whatever the specific grievances claimed to exist in Northern Ireland it is the demand for an allIreland state that is at the heart of the PIRA’s campaign.
