Irish National Liberation Army

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The Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) is an Irish republican paramilitary organization which was formed on December 8, 1974. It is the military wing of the Irish Republican Socialist Movement (a political wing, the Irish Republican Socialist Party (IRSP), was formed the same day). The founders were Seamus Costello and other activists who had left or been forced out of the Official IRA in the wake of the OIRA's 1972 ceasefire and the increasingly reformist approach of Official Sinn Fein. Costello espoused a mixture of traditional republican militarism and Marxist-oriented politics. It enjoyed its peak of influence in the late 1970s and early '80s and is one of the smaller armed republican groups in Ireland.

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Foundation

Shortly after it was founded, the INLA came under attack from their former comrades in the OIRA, who wanted to destroy the new grouping before it could get off the ground. On 20 February 1975, Hugh Ferguson, an INLA member and an IRSP branch chairperson, was the first person to be killed. One of the first so-called military operations of the INLA was the murder of Billy McMillan. a leading OIRA member in Belfast and this was followed by several more assassinations on both sides, the most prominent victim being Seamus Costello, who was shot dead on Gardiner Street in Dublin on 6 October 1977.

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the INLA developed a modest organisation in the north of Ireland, particularly based around Divis Flats in West Belfast, which as a result became colloquially known as, "the planet of the Irps" (a reference to the IRSP and the film The Planet of the Apes). During this period, the INLA competed with the Provisional IRA for members, both groups attacking the British army and the Royal Ulster Constabulary.

The first action to bring the INLA to international notice was its assassination on 30 May 1979 of Airey Neave, one of Margaret Thatcher’s closest political supporters. Other actions included the 1982 bombing of the Mount Gabriel radar station in County Cork, which was providing assistance to NATO, allegedly in violation of Irish neutrality; and the 6 December 1982 Ballykelly disco bombing of the Droppin' Well Bar in Ballykelly, County Derry, which catered to British military personnel, in which 11 soldiers and 6 civilians were killed. It emerged later at the trial that INLA members from Derry City had carried out several reconnaissance missions "to see if there were enough soldiers to justify the possibility of civilian killings."

Members of the INLA participated in the 1980 and 1981 hunger strikes for the recognition of the political status of prisoners. Three INLA members died during the latter hunger strike - Patsy O'Hara, Kevin Lynch, and Michael Devine. In terms of prestige in Irish republicanism, this turned out to be the high water mark for the INLA.

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Feuds and Splits

On 20 November 1983, three members of the congregation in the Mountain Lodge Pentecostal Church, Darkley near Keady, County Armagh were shot dead during a Sunday service. The attack was claimed by the Catholic Reaction Force, a cover name for a small group of people, including one member of the INLA. The weapon used came from an INLA arms dump, but Tim Pat Coogan claims in his book The IRA that the weapon had been given to the INLA member to assassinate a known loyalist and the attack on the church was not sanctioned. The INLA's then chief of staff, Dominic McGlinchey, came out of hiding to condemn the attack.

In the 1980s the INLA all but collapsed due to splits and criminality within its own ranks, as well as the conviction of many of its members under the British supergrass scheme. In 1987, the INLA and its political wing, the IRSP came under attack from the Irish People's Liberation Organisation (IPLO), an organisation founded by people who had resigned or been expelled from the INLA. The IPLO's sole purpose was to destroy the INLA. Five members of the INLA were killed by the IPLO. After the INLA killed the IPLO's leader, Gerard Steenson, a truce was reached. Although severely damaged by the IPLO's attacks, the INLA continued to exist. The IPLO, which was heavily involved in drug dealing, was put out of existence by the Provisional IRA in the early 1990s.

In 1995, four members of the INLA were arrested in Balbriggan while trying to smuggle weapons from Dublin to Belfast, including chief of staff Hugh Torney. Torney, with the support of two of his co-accused, called a ceasefire in exchange for favorable treatment by the Irish authorities. Since Torney lacked the authority to call a ceasefire, he and the two men who supported him were expelled from the INLA.

Torney and one of those men, Dessie McCleery, surrounded themselves with a gang of mercenaries and paid a North Belfast drug dealer to assassinate the new INLA chief of staff, Gino Gallagher. After the INLA executed both McCleery and Torney, the rest of Torney's gang quietly disbanded.

¢?? Activities== In December 1997, three members of the INLA imprisoned in Long Kesh assassinated LVF leader Billy Wright, also known as "King Rat."

The INLA declared a ceasefire on August 22, 1998. Atlhough it does not support the Good Friday Agreement, it does not call for a return to armed struggle on behalf of republicans either. It maintains a presence in parts of Belfast and has carried out punishment beatings on alleged local petty criminals.

The Independent Monitoring Commission which monitors paramilitary activity in Northern Ireland, claimed in its report of November 2004 that, the INLA is heavily involved in criminality, especially drugs trafficking. In 1999, the INLA in Dublin became involved in feud with a criminal gang in the west of the city. A young INLA man named Patrick Campbell was killed by drug dealers and the INLA has carried out several shootings in reprisal, including at least one killing. Irish journalist Paul Williams has also claimed the INLA, especially in Dublin, is now primarily a front for organised crime. The IRSP and INLA deny these allegations, arguing that no one has been simultaneously convicted of membership in the INLA and of drug offences. The IRSP and the INLA have both strongly denied any involvement with drug dealing, and stated that the INLA has threatened criminals which it claims have falsely used its name.

According to the Sutton database of deaths at the University of Ulster's CAIN project [1], the INLA was responsible for 113 deaths during the Troubles. Among its victims were 46 members of the British security forces, 42 civilians, 2 members of the Garda Síochána, 7 loyalist paramilitaries and 16 republican paramilitaries (including 10 of its own members).

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Sources

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