IRA Northern Command

The Northern Command was a division in the Irish Republican Army (IRA, 1922-1969 ) and the Provisional IRA, responsible for the management of IRA operations in the northern parts of Ireland.

IRA

After the outbreak of the Second World War, the IRA had difficulties with the cross-border communication between Dublin and Belfast in the north believed why some members of the IRA, that an independent entity would be necessary. Charlie McGlade, a printer from Belfast, was the architect of this idea. The IRA leadership agreed and so the Northern Command was transferred in 1939, the responsibility for the IRA operations in the six counties of Northern Ireland and County Donegal, while the Southern Command took over responsibility for the other 25 counties of Ireland. Charlie McGlade was the O / C of the Northern Command ( commanding officer; German commander), Jimmy Steele his adjutant and Seán McCaughey the quartermaster. In 1940, McGlade resigned as O / C of the Northern Command and appointed McCaughey as his successor.

In the early 1950s, the Northern Command and Southern Command were abolished, and was moved to the outright lead again to the south, so that you can re- issued all the commands from Dublin.

Provisional IRA

The mid-1970s, a new Northern Command of Gerry Adams and Ivor Bell proposed that should operate in the six counties of Northern Ireland, as well as the border counties of the Republic of Ireland: County Louth, County Cavan, County Monaghan, County Leitrim and County Donegal. These counties were the so-called "war zone ", were planned and carried out in paramilitary operations. The role of the Southern Command, responsible for the remaining 21 counties of the Republic, was the logistical support for the campaign in the north. This corresponded to a veritable emasculation of former Dublin IRA elite to Ruairí Ó Ó Conaill Dáithí and Bradaigh. Some Republican veterans from the north, like Joe Cahill and Billy McKee, were also opposed to the idea, fearing a split in the movement, but the then IRA Chief of Staff Seamus Twomey supported the idea of Adam ', and so was a new Northern Command end established in 1976.