Official IRA

The IRA was created in 1919 for one purpose: the creation of the Irish Free State through its political arm: Sinn Fein. It was typically non-violent, and extremely popular under Irish nationalists.

Starting in 1969, the OIRA started a civil rights campaign in Northern Ireland with the help of NICRA, or the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association. As such, its goal was to protest against the Protestant majority's discrimiation of Catholic civil rights, espeically organizations like the Royal Ulster Constaulary. Violence escalated as units of the IRA wereselected to defend Catholcs from Protestant attacks.

As the IRA became more and more left-wing, following radical class-based political outlooks, it started to become divided on the use of violence against their aggressors. While the Provisional IRA took on to a traditional Catholic/nationalist analysis, promoting violence to achieve political ends, the the Officials subscribed to the Marxists views, especailly that internal conflict amongst classes led to capitalist gains.