Narrative and the Start of the Northern Irish Troubles: Ireland’s Revolutionary Tradition in Comparative Perspective

W hen the Irish Republican Army (IRA) again embarked upon armed struggle in 1956, it was again for “an independent, united democratic Irish republic.” “This is the age-old struggle of the Irish people versus British aggression,” read the Proclamation of December 1956. The plan was for “flying columns”—which had played an important role in the Anglo-Irish war of 1919–21—to cross into North Ireland’s border counties and link up with local units. The four columns were named after republican heroes (Patrick Pearse, Tom Clarke, Bartholomew Teeling, and Liam Lynch) and Tom Barry, who had written the West Cork flying column of the Anglo-Irish War into legend, was called upon to train his successors. By fleeing into the past, however, the IRA was forced once again to retreat: the present problems of the North’s security apparatus, the South’s hostility, and the Catholic community’s indifference could not be overcome by anachronistic tactics. In February 1962, when the IRA finally faced up to the failure of the campaign, the Army Council blamed “the attitude of the general public whose minds have been deliberately distracted from the supreme issue facing the Irish people—the unity and freedom of Ireland.” Before continuing with this narrative about the Irish revolutionary tradition, it