Continuity Irish Republican Army

A Northern Irish terrorist organization founded in the mid-1980s, Continuity Irish Republican Army (Continuity IRA, or CIRA) emerged as the armed wing of Republican Sinn Féin in 1996.

For more than 30 years, Northern Ireland has endured an armed conflict between the province's Roman Catholics (also called republicans or nationalists), who want Northern Ireland to become part of the Republic of Ireland, and the province's Protestants (also called loyalists or unionists), who want it to remain a part of the United Kingdom. Armed paramilitary groups from both communities use violence to achieve their ends; the most prominent of these groups on the republican side is the Irish Republican Army (IRA). Originally formed in 1919, the IRA receded somewhat after Ireland's withdrawal from the British Commonwealth in 1949, but it was revived in 1969 when it began a terrorist campaign intended to force Britain to ...