Border Campaign (IRA)
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The Border Campaign (December 12 1956–February 26 1962) was an operation (codenamed Operation Harvest) carried out by the Irish Republican Army (IRA) against targets in Northern Ireland.
The Border Campaign was the first major military undertaking carried out by the IRA since the 1940s, when the harsh security measures of the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland governments had almost destroyed the organisation.
It consisted of various military columns carrying out a range of military operations from direct attacks on security installations to disruptive actions against infrastructure. Internment without trial, introduced first in Northern Ireland and then in the Republic, curtailed IRA operations and ultimately broke morale.
Seven members of the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) were killed during the campaign. The IRA also lost a number of its members.
Although it had petered out by the late 1950s, the Campaign was officially called off on February 26 1962. In a press release issued that day, widely believed to have been composed by Ruairí Ó Brádaigh, the IRA Army Council stated: "The leadership of the Resistance Movement has ordered the termination of the Campaign of Resistance to British occupation launched on December 12, 1956. Instructions issued to Volunteers of the Active Service Units and of local Units in the occupied area have now been carried out. All arms and other matériel have been dumped and all full-time active service volunteers have been withdrawn."
The Border Campaign was considered a disaster by the IRA, not least because it enjoyed practically no support from the nationalist population of Northern Ireland. This failure pushed some within the organisation to consider other avenues in pursuit of the organisation's goals. This process ended with the 1969/70 split in the republican movement between the Official IRA and Provisional IRA wings.
Other IRA campaigns included:
- the Sabotage Campaign in England, 1939–1940
- the Northern Campaign in Northern Ireland, 1942–1944
A later and much more destructive campaign was the Provisional IRA campaign 1969–1997 during the communal conflict in Northern Ireland known as the Troubles.
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