Official IRA

The Official IRA appears in 699. The Troubles: Return of the IRA (Part 3) as the older republican organization that remained after the December 1969 split which produced the Provisional IRA. The episode ties the split to frustration with the post-border-campaign leadership’s turn away from guerrilla violence and toward Marxist politics under figures such as Cathal Goulding.

The source also places the Official IRA in the Falls Curfew sequence: British troops entered the Lower Falls looking for an Official IRA arms cache and did find weapons, but the curfew and searches damaged Catholic trust in the British Army and helped the Provisionals rather than isolating them.

Connections

• IRA, Cathal Goulding, Provisional IRA, and Sinn Fein - republican split context.
• Falls Curfew, British Army, and State Policing Legitimacy Crisis - security-operation context.