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 withdraw from Northern Ireland.

The IRA maintained a political party called Sinn Féin. Sinn Féin and the IRA refused to recognize the governments of either Northern Ireland or the Republic of Ireland as legitimate, a position stemming from ideological conflicts over the 1920 partition of Ireland. Although Sinn Féin sometimes fielded candidates in elections, if elected, they refused to serve. Initially, the revitalized IRA took the same position, and Sinn Féin's role in the conflict was very limited.

In the mid-1980s, following the hunger strikes of 1981, IRA leaders began to think that greater political involvement might aid, not hinder, their struggle. At a 1986 meeting of IRA leaders, a proposal that the IRA recognize the government of the Republic of Ireland was put forth; such recognition would allow elected Sinn Féin candidates to take office in the Dáil, the Republic's legislature.

A hard-line faction of Sinn Féin membership split with the IRA over this deviation from traditional republicanism; the splinter group formed a political party, Republican Sinn Féin, which would adhere to the old abstentionism. During the next few years, Republican Sinn Féin gathered arms and recruits, calling its armed wing the Continuity IRA, or CIRA; however, CIRA remained inactive. The leaders of Republican Sinn Féin were allegedly threatened with death should they attempt to mount an armed campaign separate from the Provisional IRA. In late 1994, the movement toward political involvement by the Provisionals had borne fruit; the IRA called a cease-fire and Sinn Féin leaders entered secret peace negotiations with the mainstream nationalist parties and the British government.

By 1996, negotiations had stalled and dissatisfaction was growing within the Republican community, providing a climate in which CIRA could emerge. On July 13, 1996, CIRA made its first attack, detonating a 250-pound car bomb outside a hotel in County Fermanagh. It followed with two more bombings in the fall of 1996. By then, the IRA had broken its cease-fire with the Canary Wharf Bombing in London, and CIRA activity declined. As the IRA prepared to renew its cease-fire in the summer of 1997, CIRA escalated its attacks, planting bombs at government offices, police stations, and hotels. Most recently, CIRA is believed to be responsible for a bomb planted outside of BBC offices in London on March 4, 2001. (Some sources attribute this attack to a different splinter group, the Real IRA.) No one has been killed by the 17 bombings attributed to CIRA, although dozens have been injured and millions of dollars of damage has been done to property.

[Page 97]CIRA is opposed to the 1998 Good Friday Accords, Northern Ireland's peace plan. CIRA is the only Republican paramilitary organization that has not declared a cease-fire in response to the accords; it is believed that several Real IRA members may have joined CIRA following 1998's cease-fire. Although its numbers are small—estimated at about 30 members—it has an unknown amount of IRA weaponry seized from arms dumps and remains a significant threat.

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