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The Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA or PIRA) was〔(McConville son says Gerry Adams 'threatened backlash' )〕〔(IRA has disbanded but army council still exists, peace monitors report )〕〔(IRA has disbanded terrorist structure, says report )〕〔(I.R.A. Ex-Commander to Shake Hands With Queen )〕 an Irish republican paramilitary organisation that sought to remove Northern Ireland from the United Kingdom and bring about an independent republic encompassing all of Ireland.〔Moloney, Ed (2002). ''A Secret History of the IRA''. Penguin Books. p. 246. ISBN 0-14-101041-X.〕 It was the biggest and most active republican paramilitary group during the Troubles. It saw itself as the successor to the original IRA and called itself simply the Irish Republican Army, or ''Óglaigh na hÉireann'' in Irish.〔Moloney, p. 707〕 It was also widely referred to as such by others. The IRA is designated an unlawful terrorist organisation in the United Kingdom and an unlawful organisation in the Republic of Ireland.〔(Home Office – Proscribed Terror Groups ) – Home Office website. Retrieved 11 May 2007〕 The Provisional IRA emerged in December 1969, following a split in the republican movement. The Troubles had begun a year before, when a largely Catholic, nonviolent civil rights campaign was met with violence from both Ulster loyalists and the Royal Ulster Constabulary, culminating in the August 1969 riots and deployment of British troops.〔''The Provisional IRA'' by Patrick Bishop and Eamonn Mallie (ISBN 0-552-13337-X), p. 117.〕 The IRA initially focused on defence, but it began an offensive campaign in 1971 (see timeline). The IRA's primary goal was to force the British to negotiate a withdrawal from Northern Ireland. It used guerrilla tactics against the British Army and RUC in both rural and urban areas. It also carried out a bombing campaign in Northern Ireland and England against what it saw as political and economic targets. The IRA called a final ceasefire in July 1997, after Sinn Féin was re-admitted into the Northern Ireland peace talks. It supported the 1998 Good Friday Agreement and in 2005 it disarmed under international supervision. ==Overview of strategies== The IRA's initial strategy was to use force to cause the collapse of the government of Northern Ireland and to inflict enough casualties on British forces that the British government would be forced by public opinion to withdraw from the region.〔O'Brien The Long War, p. 119.〕 This policy involved recruitment of volunteers, increasing after the 1972 Bloody Sunday incident in which the British armed forces killed unarmed protesters, and launching attacks against British military and economic targets.〔O'Brien, Long War, p. 107.〕〔''The Prevention of Terrorism in British Law'' by Clive Walker (ISBN 978-0719022036), page 9〕 The campaign was supported by arms and funding from Libya〔Bowyer Bell, J. (1997). The Secret Army: The IRA. Transaction Publishers, pp. 556–571. ISBN 1-56000-901-2〕 and from some Irish American groups. The IRA agreed to a ceasefire in February 1975, which lasted nearly a year〔 before the IRA concluded that the British were drawing them into politics without offering any guarantees in relation to the IRA's goals (as well as launching an intelligence offensive),〔https://books.google.com/books?id=Kc1jtzUNiFAC&pg=PA53&lpg=PA53&dq=ira+1975+ceasefire+intelligence&source=bl&ots=PJimPyUbxV&sig=caVZv7v4vRhh7rgXW-DngBAjds4&hl=en&sa=X&ei=vU0qU6DYLMSe0QXhoYDwCA&ved=0CFYQ6AEwCA#v=onepage&q=ira%201975%20ceasefire%20intelligence&f=false〕 and hopes of a quick victory receded. As a result, the IRA launched a new strategy known as "the Long War". This saw them conduct a war of attrition against the British and increased emphasis on political activity, via the political party Sinn Féin.〔''The Irish Troubles: A Generation of Violence 1967–1992'' by John Bowyer Bell (ISBN 0-7171-2201-8), page 555〕 The success of the 1981 Irish hunger strike in mobilising support and winning elections led to the Armalite and ballot box strategy, with more time and resources devoted to political activity. The abortive attempt at an escalation of the military part of that strategy led republican leaders increasingly to look for a political compromise to end the conflict, with a broadening dissociation of Sinn Féin from the IRA. Following negotiations with the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) and secret talks with British civil servants, the IRA ultimately called a ceasefire in 1994 on the understanding that Sinn Féin would be included in political talks for a settlement. When the British government, dependent on Ulster Unionist Party votes at Westminster, then demanded the disarmament of the IRA before it allowed Sinn Féin into multiparty talks, the IRA called off its ceasefire in February 1996. This demand was quickly dropped after the May 1997 general election in the UK. The IRA ceasefire was then reinstated in July 1997 and Sinn Féin was admitted into all-party talks, which produced the Good Friday Agreement of 1998. The IRA's armed campaign, primarily in Northern Ireland but also in England and mainland Europe, caused the deaths of approximately 1,800 people. The dead included around 1,100 members of the British security forces, and about 640 civilians.〔1969–2001: 1,821 deaths, including 621 civilians. Source: 2002 online update of 1994 book — Malcolm Sutton (1994) ''Bear in mind these dead ... An Index of Deaths from the Conflict in Ireland 1969–1993'', Belfast: Beyond the Pale Publications, ISBN 0-9514229-4-4. Update hosted at CAIN research project at the University of Ulster, (CAIN: Sutton Index of Deaths – extracts from Sutton's book )〕〔1969–2004: 1,781 deaths, including 644 civilians. Source: ''Lost Lives: The Stories of the Men, Women and Children Who Died Through the Northern Ireland Troubles'' (2004. Ed's David McKitrick, Seamus Kelters, Brian Feeney, Chris Thornton, David McVea), Mainstream Publishing, ISBN 978-1-84018-504-1, page 1536〕 The IRA itself lost 275–300 members〔''Lost Lives'' (2004), p1531 – 294 members; Sutton (2002) – 276 members.〕 and an estimated 10,000 imprisoned at various times over the 30-year period.〔〔Mallie Bishop, p. 12〕 On 28 July 2005, the IRA Army Council announced an end to its armed campaign, stating that it would work to achieve its aims using "purely political and democratic programmes through exclusively peaceful means", and shortly afterwards completed decommissioning. In September 2008, the nineteenth report of the Independent Monitoring Commission stated that the IRA was "committed to the political path" and no longer represented "a threat to peace or to democratic politics", and that the Army Council was "no longer operational or functional".〔"(IRA army council 'no longer operational' )". Raidió Teilifís Éireann, 3 September 2008. Retrieved 2 April 2009〕 The organisation remains classified as a proscribed terrorist group in the UK and as an illegal organisation in the Republic of Ireland.〔(Home Office – Proscribed Terror Groups ) – Home Office website. Retrieved 11 May 2007 〕 Two small groups split from the Provisional IRA, the Continuity IRA in 1986, and the Real IRA in 1997. Both reject the Good Friday Agreement and continue to engage in paramilitary activity. On 26 July 2012, it was announced that some former members of the Provisional Irish Republican Army were merging with the Real Irish Republican Army, other independent republican paramilitary groups and the vigilante group Republican Action Against Drugs (but not with the Continuity Irish Republican Army) into a unified formation known simply as the "Irish Republican Army". This new IRA group is estimated by Police Service of Northern Ireland intelligence sources to have between 250 and 300 active militants and many more supporting associates. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Provisional Irish Republican Army」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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