The IRA and the Partition of Ireland

The Irish Republican Army (IRA) has been the most aggressively hostile opponent of the border that was established in Ireland during the 1920s. This article focuses on the fact that the IRA’s own violence emerged from a substantial, evolving and complex politics. It suggests that close consideration of that politics, of associated IRA violence and of the long-term implications of both, represents a necessary part of understanding the Irish border and its associated and important histories. Three case studies are considered: Ernie O’Malley (1897–1957); Peadar O’Donnell (1893–1986); the Provisional IRA (1969–2005). The article argues that the paradoxical outcomes of these three significant IRA case studies point towards the need for greater honesty about the actual effects of non-state political violence; it also argues for an empathetic approach to understanding those with whom one instinctively disagrees, if the political history of the Irish border and its legacies is to be properly understood.