Eriksson, Anna (2009). Justice in Transition: Community restorative justice in Northern Ireland. Willan Publishing. ISBN 978-1843925187. Focus on women’s involvement in the Irish revolution has generally centred on elite women such as Constance Markievicz. What is certain though is that the deeds of the women who fought for Irish freedom were frequently overshadowed by the martial feats of their male counterparts. Women in the revolution (with a few notable exceptions mentioned above) were confined by their male comrades to a very strictly defined gendered and traditional role i.e. – signalling, delivering despatches, first aid work, cooking and cleaning. Some women succeeded in breaking this mould to provide vital support to the IRA’s campaign including intelligence work and the transporting of arms and explosives. When the resolution failed to achieve the necessary two-thirds majority to change Sinn Féin policy the leadership announced a resolution recognising the "Official" Army Council, which would only require a simple majority vote to pass. [50] At this point Seán Mac Stíofáin led the walkout after declaring allegiance to the "Provisional" Army Council. [50]

What is true that the importance of women’s role in the military struggle was often glossed over in preference to a celebration of the masculine military qualities of IRA combatants. In 1974 Seamus Costello, an Official IRA member who led a faction opposed to its ceasefire, was expelled and formed the Irish National Liberation Army. [100] This organisation remained active until 1994 when it began a "no-first-strike" policy, before declaring a ceasefire in 1998. [101] Its armed campaign, which caused the deaths of 113 people, was formally ended in October 2009 and in February 2010 it decommissioned its weapons. [101] White, Robert (2006). Ruairí Ó Brádaigh: The Life and Politics of an Irish Revolutionary. Indiana University Press. ISBN 978-0253347084.

After the Official IRA's ceasefire, the Provisional IRA were typically referred to as simply the IRA. [104] Carlin said: “He went on to explain how valuable the information was when it came to military planning and counter-terrorism on the UK mainland. This information, Stephen stressed, would calm the minds of those anti-terrorist commanders in Scotland. He was clearly delighted.”

At the same time there were 14,000 regular army soldiers deployed in Northern Ireland, in addition to 8,000 Ulster Defence Regiment soldiers and 6,000 Royal Ulster Constabulary officers. [324]

For example Ann Matthew’s 2012 book “Dissidents” which charted the history of Republican women in the Civil War period stated emphatically but mistakenly that “no Republican women died as a result of the conflict”. ATTITUDES IN THE REPUBLIC OF IRELAND RELEVANT TO THE NORTHERN IRELAND PROBLEM' VOL. I – Descriptive Analysis and Some Comparisons with Attitudes in Northern Ireland and Great Britain | E. E. DAVIS and R. SINNOTT |1979 | Link | p=99. Theresa Villiers (20 October 2015). "Secretary of State's oral statement on assessment of paramilitary groups in Northern Ireland". Northern Ireland Office . Retrieved 24 August 2021– via gov.uk. The Provisional IRA declared a final ceasefire in July 1997, after which its political wing Sinn Féin was admitted into multi-party peace talks on the future of Northern Ireland. These resulted in the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, and in 2005 the IRA formally ended its armed campaign and decommissioned its weapons under the supervision of the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning. Several splinter groups have been formed as a result of splits within the IRA, including the Continuity IRA and the Real IRA, both of which are still active in the dissident Irish republican campaign. In prison, Bettaney became close to IRA prisoners and revealed that the British had a highly-placed spy in Derry close to McGuinness.

Goodspeed, Michael (2001). When Reason Fails: Portraits of Armies at War - America, Britain, Israel and the Future (Studies in Military History and International Affairs). Praeger Publishing. ISBN 978-0275973780.Find sources: "List of films featuring the Irish Republican Army"– news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR ( July 2019) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message)

Prior to May 1972 IRA volunteers in the Republic of Ireland were tried in normal courts. The three judge Special Criminal Court was re-introduced following a series of regional court cases where IRA volunteers were acquitted or received light sentences from sympathetic juries and judges, and also to prevent jury tampering. [301] Paramilitarism in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland | BERNADETTE C. HAYES & IAN MCALLISTER | 1999 | Link | p=607. O'Leary, Brendan (2019a). A Treatise on Northern Ireland, Volume I: Colonialism. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0199243341. There was also the issue of friends and relatives of Irish people living, working and studying in Scotland. “It just wouldn’t have worked,” Carlin added.Following the convention the traditionalists canvassed support throughout Ireland, with IRA director of intelligence Mac Stíofáin meeting the disaffected members of the IRA in Belfast. [56] Shortly after, the traditionalists held a convention which elected a "Provisional" Army Council, composed of Mac Stíofáin, Ruairí Ó Brádaigh, Paddy Mulcahy, Sean Tracey, Leo Martin, Ó Conaill, and Cahill. [48] The term provisional was chosen to mirror the 1916 Provisional Government of the Irish Republic, [51] and also to designate it as temporary pending ratification by a further IRA convention. [n 4] [48] [57] Nine out of thirteen IRA units in Belfast sided with the "Provisional" Army Council in December 1969, roughly 120 activists and 500 supporters. [58] The Provisional IRA issued their first public statement on 28 December 1969, [4] stating: it deserves. With your contribution, you'll gain access to exclusive newsletters, editors' recommendations, Campbell, Anne (24 February 2015). " 'No info' provos involved in crimes". Irish Independent . Retrieved 25 August 2020. READ MORE: Review: Fifty Years On: The Troubles And The Struggle For Change In Northern Ireland, by Malachi O’Doherty In January 1970, the Army Council decided to adopt a three-stage strategy; defence of nationalist areas, followed by a combination of defence and retaliation, and finally launching a guerrilla campaign against the British Army. [78] The Official IRA was opposed to such a campaign because they felt it would lead to sectarian conflict, which would defeat their strategy of uniting the workers from both sides of the sectarian divide. [79] The Provisional IRA's strategy was to use force to cause the collapse of the Northern Ireland government and to inflict such heavy casualties on the British Army that the British government would be forced by public opinion to withdraw from Ireland. [80] Mac Stíofáin decided they would "escalate, escalate and escalate", in what the British Army would later describe as a "classic insurgency". [81] [82] In October 1970 the IRA began a bombing campaign against economic targets; by the end of the year there had been 153 explosions. [83] The following year it was responsible for the vast majority of the 1,000 explosions that occurred in Northern Ireland. [84] The strategic aim behind the bombings was to target businesses and commercial premises to deter investment and force the British government to pay compensation, increasing the financial cost of keeping Northern Ireland within the United Kingdom. [n 9] [80] The IRA also believed that the bombing campaign would tie down British soldiers in static positions guarding potential targets, preventing their deployment in counter-insurgency operations. [80] Loyalist paramilitaries, including the UVF, carried out campaigns aimed at thwarting the IRA's aspirations and maintaining the political union with Britain. [86] Loyalist paramilitaries tended to target Catholics with no connection to the republican movement, seeking to undermine support for the IRA. [n 10] [87] [88]