I remember Irish Republican Army (IRA) as a serious resistance group. It's suspicious that they are not active against all the madness going on in UK today.
There are quite a few different IRAs, as there always were really. The IRA you remember is likely the PIRA (provisional Irish Republican Army, or provos). They were very active during the troubles alongside the smaller but more brutal INLA (Irish National Liberation Army, political wing IRSP). Both the PIRA and INLA signed up to the Belfast Agreement commonly known as the Good Friday Agreement (GFA). Signatories to the GFA agreed to disband and decommission their arsenals, so while the PIRA and INLA likely still exist to a degree, they are no longer particularly well armed and mainly serve as muscle for Irish drug gangs.
There are now newer iterations of the IRA who reject the GFA (New IRA, RAAD, RIRA, CIRA etc.) these groups are quite small and seem remarkably easy to infiltrate. The RIRA in Dublin tried to tax local criminals and drug dealers a few years back to secure funding and assert dominance. In response their Dublin leadership were all murdered, which illustrates how little respect these groups have compared to their PIRA forebears.
Very important to note about all modern forms of IRA is that they are very much socialist in their outlook (republican is even used synonymously with socialist in Ireland). They’ve obviously waged campaigns against the British down the years, but this was very much under the guise of anti imperial militancy. While there are some traditionalist members/factions within these groups it would be naive to expect them to oppose internationalism on principle. Also, since their main strongholds are in Catholic areas in Northern Ireland, they all live in mono-ethnic enclaves, making them in many ways just a working class version of the diversity loving middle classes only too happy to impose their principles on others but never suffering them themselves.
Tl;dr the IRA is gone, what remains are Marxist fruitcakes, they ain’t gonna save us and if they’re to be considered at all should be regarded as enemies.
Irelandlost 7 points 6 hours ago
There are quite a few different IRAs, as there always were really. The IRA you remember is likely the PIRA (provisional Irish Republican Army, or provos). They were very active during the troubles alongside the smaller but more brutal INLA (Irish National Liberation Army, political wing IRSP). Both the PIRA and INLA signed up to the Belfast Agreement commonly known as the Good Friday Agreement (GFA). Signatories to the GFA agreed to disband and decommission their arsenals, so while the PIRA and INLA likely still exist to a degree, they are no longer particularly well armed and mainly serve as muscle for Irish drug gangs.
There are now newer iterations of the IRA who reject the GFA (New IRA, RAAD, RIRA, CIRA etc.) these groups are quite small and seem remarkably easy to infiltrate. The RIRA in Dublin tried to tax local criminals and drug dealers a few years back to secure funding and assert dominance. In response their Dublin leadership were all murdered, which illustrates how little respect these groups have compared to their PIRA forebears.
Very important to note about all modern forms of IRA is that they are very much socialist in their outlook (republican is even used synonymously with socialist in Ireland). They’ve obviously waged campaigns against the British down the years, but this was very much under the guise of anti imperial militancy. While there are some traditionalist members/factions within these groups it would be naive to expect them to oppose internationalism on principle. Also, since their main strongholds are in Catholic areas in Northern Ireland, they all live in mono-ethnic enclaves, making them in many ways just a working class version of the diversity loving middle classes only too happy to impose their principles on others but never suffering them themselves.
Tl;dr the IRA is gone, what remains are Marxist fruitcakes, they ain’t gonna save us and if they’re to be considered at all should be regarded as enemies.