IRISH REPUBLICAN ARMY & JJOE DOHERTY IRISH REPUBLICAN ARMY & OE DOHERTY

The IRA or the Irish Republican Army is recognized as one of the most prominent and feared terrorist groups in the world. Known for their trademarked activities such as bombing, assassinations, kidnapping, beatings, extortions, robberies and smuggling. However, the IRA wasnt always the ruthless criminal group it became. It originated from the Irish Volunteers which was formed in 1913. At first, the IRA was formed to fight against the British in the Irish War of Independence. The need was seen for an organized and united army after the Easter Rising. The Easter Rising was an Irish Republic insurrection or uprising against the British Government in Dublin, Ireland on Easter Monday, April 24, 1916. Patrick Pearse, who read the proclamation that announced the establishment of an Irish Republic under the provisional government. He was also a leader of the Irish Volunteers that became the IRA soon after this historic event. After the Easter Rising, order was established and executives were elected. Michael Collins was named director of the organization. They were key in the fighting against the Crown forces in the Independence War. Having home field advantage allowed them to use guerilla warfare tactics. This is where the IRA adopted their unorthodox style of fighting. One of the more memorable acts of violence by the IRA included Belfasts Bloody Sunday. It took place on July 10, 1921 in Belfast, Northern Ireland where 22 people were killed, 70 wounded, and 200 houses were destroyed. Another event known as Bloody Sunday, took place in

Dublin in November 1920. In the early hours of the morning, Michael Collins and his men assassinated 14 British agents, many in front of their wives. In vengeance, British services open fired on a crowd of people observing a soccer game at Croke Park in Dublin. The IRA continued to grow and evolve from an organized army to a terrorist party. Eventually outlawed by both Irish governments, it became a secret organization. It carried out bombing attacks in Belfast, London, and at the Ulster border during the 1950s, especially in 195657, but then became inactive until the late 1960s. In 1969, the IRA split into two groups, the majority, or officials, supporting a united socialist Ireland but rejecting terrorist activities. Then there were provisionals, or those claiming terrorism as a necessary method for the unification of Ireland. The provisionals began an organized terrorist operation in Northern Ireland. In 1972 the provisionals extended their terrorism to England, where it ended in the bombing of a Birmingham pub that killed 19 persons in 1974. As a result, the British parliament passed the Prevention of Terrorism Act, outlawing the IRA in Britain. At around the time of the bombing of the Birmingham Pub, future IRA mastermind, Joe Doherty was arrested on his seventeenth birthday in January. He was imprisoned without trial in Her Majesty's Prison Maze or better known to locals of Northern Ireland as The Maze. While serving time, Doherty heard word of the atrocious Bloody Sunday events that occurred in Derry where fourteen civil rights protesters were shot and killed. This motivated Doherty to join the IRA after his release in June of 1972. After joining he became part of the infamous M60 Gang

Angelo Fusco and Paul Magee, nicknamed for their use of an M60 machine gun. On April 9, 1980, the squad ambushed the Royal Ulster Constabulary in Stewardstown, Northern Ireland killing one and wounding two. They were finally stopped on May 2nd, when they were caught after having their plan foiled by the SAS. The M60 Gang was put on trial in May of 1981 for three counts of murder. However, Doherty, Fusco, and six other inmates held a prison officer hostage at gunpoint in the Crumlin Road Jail in Belfast, Ireland. They proceeded to escape threw the three gates and eventually from the prison, which led Doherty to be convicted in absentia, or life in prison due to his inability to show up at his trial. Doherty escaped over the border to the Republic of Ireland and then to New York. He worked as a Bartender in Brooklyn until June 28, 1983