by Ed Moloney
Ard Comhairle (ard corlya)
Ruling Executive of Sinn Fein, the IRA’s political wing.
Ard Fheis (ard esh)
Annual conference of Sinn Fein. Plural is Ard-Fheiseanna.
Armalite
U.S. automatic and semiautomatic rifle first used by the IRA in early 1970s.
Army Council
Seven-person committee which decides IRA policy.
articles 2 and 3
Constitutional embodiment of the Republic of Ireland’s claim to Northern Ireland. Significantly soft-end under terms of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement.
ASU
IRA Active Service Unit.
Ballymurphy
Sprawling Catholic housing estate in West Belfast where Gerry Adams grew up.
Barrett Light 50
U.S.-made sniping rifle, highly accurate and deadly. Fired a.50 inch slug. Favored by the IRA in South Armagh.
BB
Belfast Brigade of the IRA.
BBC
British Broadcasting Corporation.
black stuff
IRA nickname for home-made explosives.
Bloody Friday
Name given to July 21, 1972, when twenty IRA car bombs exploded in Belfast, killing seven people.
Bloody Sunday
Name given to January 30, 1972 when British paratroopers shot dead fourteen civil rights marchers in Derry.
Bodenstown
The cemetery in County Kildare, west of Dublin, where Wolfe Tone, the eighteenth century founder of Irish republicanism is buried. The annual commemoration in June is the occasion for the IRA leadership to promulgate policy.
Bogside
Catholic ghetto of Derry where the Provisional IRA leader Martin McGuinness was born.
Brit
IRA term for member of the British Army or Government.
Brownie
Pen-name used by Gerry Adams for articles he wrote in Cage 11 AP-RN.
Cage 11
The prison hut in the internment camp outside Belfast where Adams and his allies were held in the mid-1970s. Became shorthand for Adams supporters and their plan to revitalize and take over the IRA.
chairman of the Army Council
Member of the Army Council chosen to represent the IRA in negotiations.
chief of staff
The IRA’s military commander.
CIA
Central Intelligence Agency.
Clonard
Nationalist section of mid-Falls Road area in west Belfast, home of the Redemptorist Monastery. Loyalist efforts to burn the area in 1969 led to the birth of the Provisional IRA.
“concrete proposal”
Adams–Reid strategy of pan-nationalism proposed to Irish government in 1986–87.
Connolly Association
British-based Marxist and Irish republican discussion group in 1960s.
cumann/cumainn
Irish word for “group” or “branch”, usually in politics.
Cumann na mBan (cuman naman)
The IRA’s women’s wing, now scrapped and integrated into the main organization.
DAAD
Direct Action Against Drugs. Front for IRA, especially during 1994–96 cease-fire.
Dail Eireann (doyle eran)
The Irish parliament in Dublin, known to hard-line republicans as Leinster House.
D Coy
Legendary IRA company of the Second Belfast Battalion, formed in the lower Falls Road area. Known in IRA slang as “the Dogs.”
Defenders
Catholic defence organization established in late eighteenth century in response to violence of Protestant groups like the Peep O’Day Boys.
DSD
Downing Street Declaration, of December 1993.
DUP
Democratic Unionist Party, founded and led by the Reverend Ian Paisley. Opposes the Good Friday Agreement but takes ministerial posts nevertheless.
Dushkie
Soviet-made DHSK heavy machine gun supplied to the IRA by Libya. It proved far too heavy for the IRA to use, and its gunbelt was too small.
Easter Proclamation
Declaration of Irish independence signed by the leader of the Easter Rising.
Easter Rising
Mostly Dublin-based rebellion of the Irish Volunteers in 1916. Secretly planned and fomented by the IRB leadership.
EGAC
Extraordinary IRA Convention, which only delegates from previous Convention can attend.
Eire Nua (erah nua)
New Ireland programme for a federal Ireland proposed by early Provisional IRA leaders.
electoralism
Policy of standing regularly in elections.
EO
Explosives officer.
Executive
Thirteen-person body, elected at Convention which chooses the Army Council.
FBI
Federal Bureau of Investigation, charged with monitoring IRA activities in the United States.
na Fianna Eireann (na feena eran)
The IRA’s boy scouts, disbanded in late 1970s.
Fianna Fail (feena foyle)
The party set up by Eamon de Valera after he broke with the IRA in 1926.
Fine Gael (finner gail)
Political descendants of Michael Collins and the Sinn Fein members who supported the 1921 Treaty.
First Dail
Name given to Irish MPs elected in 1919 who refused to sit at Westminster and set up a rival and rebel parliament in Dublin.
flying column
Name given to large, fast-moving IRA force operating mostly in the countryside.
FoSF
Friends of Sinn Fein. Set up during the peace process to raise money for Sinn Fein in the United States.
Free State
Contemptuous term given by republicans to the Southern, twenty-six county state. Taken from its official name in 1922, the Irish Free State.
FRU
Force Research Unit. Agent running section of British military intelligence.
Garda Siochana (garda sheehonah)
Police force in the Republic of Ireland.
Gear
IRA slang for weaponry.
General Army Convention (GAC)
Delegate meeting of the IRA membership which is the body’s supreme authority. Only the Convention can change the IRA’s constitution.
General Army Orders (GAO)
IRA rules and regulations covering, e.g., arrangements for courts-martial and punishments.
GHQ
General headquarters staff. The departmental heads who organize the IRA’s structures and military campaign.
Good Friday Agreement
Political deal agreed in Belfast in April 1998 by the pro-peace process parties including Sinn Fein.
Government of Ireland Act
British legislation in 1920 that partitioned Ireland and established authority over Northern Ireland.
Green Book
IRA tutorial cum regulation book, required reading for all IRA members. It also contains the IRA constitution.
GRIT
Graduated and Reciprocated Initiatives in Tension Reduction. Concept behind the secret diplomacy between the British and the IRA in Derry from 1990 on.
H Blocks
Cell blocks in the Maze prison used to house paramilitary prisoners. They replaced the internment compounds and became the focus of a campaign for political status that led to the 1981 hunger strikes.
Hillsborough agreement
Agreement of 1985 between Margaret Thatcher and Garret FitzGerald that gave the Republic a consultative say in Northern Ireland’s affairs.
Home Rule
Demand for self-government made by Irish nationalists prior to the 1916 Rising.
human bomb
IRA tactic of early 1990s.
IICD
Independent International Commission on Decommissioning. Body that oversees paramilitary disarmament.
IMC
Inde
pendent Monitoring Commission. Monitors and reports of state of IRA and loyalist cease-fires.
IO
Intelligence officer.
INLA
Irish National Liberation Army. Small left-wing republican splinter group known for its extreme violence and vicious feuds. Its political wing is the Irish Republican Socialist Party (IRSP).
IRA
Irish Republican Army. At the last count there were four bodies calling themselves the IRA, each one claiming sole right to the title. The largest of these and the one most identified in the public mind as the IRA is the Provisional IRA, which fought a quarter-century-long campaign against the British presence in Northern Ireland. Also known as the ’RA or as the Army.
IRB
Irish Republican Brotherhood. Secret wing and precursor of the IRA led by Patrick Pearse but later controlled by Michael Collins. Had its roots in the American Fenian movement. Faded away after the Treaty was signed.
LIS
Libyan Intelligence Service.
Long Kesh
Name given to the compounds and cages used to house IRA internees in the early 1970s.
Long War
Concept of a lengthy political and military struggle developed by Adams in Cage 11.
loyalist
An extreme unionist. The term also denotes a readiness to use violence and a hatred for Catholics.
Maidstone
British prison ship used briefly to house IRA interness, including Gerry Adams.
Maze prison
Name given to Long Kesh by the British after the IRA was criminalized in the mid-1970s.
MI5
The British internal security service. Has been in charge of intelligence operations against the IRA since the mid-1980s.
MI6
The British Secret Intelligence Service. Unionists suspect MI6 of pro-Irish nationalist sympathies.
Motorman
Name of British army operation to occupy IRA areas of Belfast and Derry.
Mountain Climber
Name given to MI6 officer Michael Oatley, who secretly negotiated with the IRA.
the movement
Name given by republicans to combined force of the IRA and Sinn Fein and associated bodies.
MP
Member of the British House of Commons at Westminster.
MRF
British undercover unit of the early 1970s. Believed to stand for Military Reconnaissance Force.
NICRA
Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association.
NIO
Northern Ireland Office. British department which governs Northern Ireland.
NLF
National Liberation Front. Broad front of left-wing groups proposed by Cathal Goulding in 1960s.
NSD
National self-determination.
nationalist
Someone sympathetic to the peaceful reunification of Ireland. Also shorthand for Catholic…
Noraid
New York-based IRA support group known officially as Irish Northern Aid.
Northern Command
Separate IRA structure for the “war zone” set up in mid-1970s as part of the Adams reforms. A crucial vehicle for his takeover.
OC
Officer commanding an IRA unit.
Official IRA
The section of the IRA that stayed loyal to Cathal Goulding after the 1969 split.
ONH
Oglaigh na hEireann (ogly na herran). The Irish for IRA, literally the army of Ireland.
OO
Operations officer, “Double O” in IRA usage.
Operation Harvest
Name given to start of IRA’s 1956–62 Border Campaign.
Orangeman
Member of the exclusively Protestant and unionist Orange Order.
partition
The division of Ireland into two states by the 1920 Government of Ireland Act.
PD
People’s Democracy. Student-based civil rights movement of late 1960s.
Planters
Protestants from Northern England and lowland Scotland settled by Tudor and Stuart monarchs in Ireland, mostly in northeast.
PRG
Derry-based Peace and Reconciliation Group.
Provo/Provie
Slang for Provisional IRA member or supporter.
QMG
Quarter-master general. GHQ officer responsible for acquiring, hiding and supplying the IRA’s arms.
Republican Clubs
Name given to Sinn Fein in Northern Ireland in 1960s. Idea borrowed from Revolutionary Councils Colonel Gaddafi by Adams and his allies in mid-1970s. It functioned as a mini-Convention and was used to press changes on the Army Council.
RPG-7
Rocket Propelled Grenade, a favorite IRA weapon from the early 1970s on.
RSF
Republican Sinn Fein. Breakaway from Provisional Sinn Fein led by Ruairi O Bradaigh. Objected to dropping of abstentionism in the Dail and has a military wing called the Continuity IRA.
RTE
Radio Telefis Eireann. The state radio and television company in the Irish Republic.
RUC
Royal Ulster Constabulary. Northern Ireland’s mostly Protestant police force, renamed the Police Service of Northern Ireland under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement.
SAM-7
Surface-to-air missiles supplied to the IRA by Libya. Their batteries could not be replaced and the weapon was never used in anger.
SAS
Special Air Services. Covert wing of the British army that carried out ambushes against the IRA like that at Loughgall.
SDLP
Social Democratic and Labour Party. Until the peace process it was the largest nationalist party in Northern Ireland.
Second Dail
Parliament elected in 1921 in the last all-Ireland poll. Revered by traditional republicans because of that.
Semtex
Powerful Czech-made plastic explosive supplied to the IRA in large quantities by Colonel Gaddafi.
Sinn Fein (shin fain)
Irish for “Ourselves Alone.” The political wing of the republican movement.
Sos (Suss)
Irish word that means a short pause. Was used by IRA members to describe the 1994 cease-fire.
SPA
Special Powers Act. Unionist anti-IRA law.
Special Branch
RUC’s intelligence wing.
Stick
Republican term for IRA members who stayed with the Goulding wing after the 1969 split.
Stormont
The Northern Ireland parliament or Assembly.
Tan War
Another name for the Anglo-Irish conflict of 1919–21, so-named after the British militia “the Black and Tans”.
tanaiste (tonashta)
Irish deputy prime minister.
taoiseach (teeshuk)
Irish prime minister.
Tartan gang
Teenage loyalist gangs in Belfast set up in 1971 after the IRA abducted and killed three young Scottish soldiers.
TD
Member of the Irish parliament.
Tet offensive
Based on the Vietnamese offensive of the same name, the Irish equivalent was supposed to start in 1987.
think tank
Small group of advisers gathered around Adams. It ran the negotiations leading to the 1994 and 1997 cease-fires.
Thirty-two-County Sovereignty Movement
Political wing of the Real IRA which broke with the Provisionals in 1997.
Tory
Alternative name for a member of the British Conservative Party.
Thompson submachine gun
IRA’s traditional weapon of choice until the Armalite arrived.
The Twelfth
Annual Orange celebration of King William’s victory at the Battle of the Boyne. Held on July 12 each year.
the unknowns
Secret intelligence cell set up by Gerry Adams in early 1970
s
TPU
Timer power unit. Bomb-detonating mechanism devised by IRA engineers.
TUAS
Ambiguously titled strategy devised to justify the 1994 IRA cease-fire. Known in the IRA as the Tactical Use of Armed Struggle but to Sinn Fein’s mainstream political allies as the Totally UnArmed Strategy.
Ulster custom
Privilege of security of tenancy and compensation for land improvement granted to Protestant farmers.
unionist
Someone who favors retaining Northern Ireland’s constitutional link to Britain.