Border Campaign (IRA)

Border Campaign (Operation Harvest)
Notable sites of conflict during the campaign.
Date December 12th 1956 – February 26th 1962 (5 years, 2 months and 2 weeks) Location Mainly Irish border Result British victory IRA campaign fails, hundreds of republicans interned
Belligerents
Irish Republican Army	British Army Royal Ulster Constabulary Ulster Special Constabulary
Commanders and leaders
IRA Army Council Seán Cronin Ruairí Ó Brádaigh	Insp.-Gen. Sir Richard Pim Insp.-Gen. Sir Albert Kennedy (from 1961)
Strength
~Around 200 Volunteers	British Army: Several thousand Royal Ulster Constabulary: 2,800 Ulster Special Constabulary: 12,500+
Casualties and losses
8 IRA men dead, 4 republican supporters dead Over 400 interned in Northern Ireland, ~150 interned in Republic of Ireland	6 RUC constables dead, 32 wounded

The Border Campaign (December 12, 1956 – February 26, 1962) was a guerrilla warfare campaign (codenamed Operation Harvest) carried out by the Irish Republican Army (IRA) against targets in Northern Ireland, with the aim of overthrowing British rule there and creating a united Ireland.

Popularly referred to as the Border Campaign, it was also referred to as the "Resistance Campaign" by some Irish republican activists. The campaign was a military failure, but for some of its members, the campaign was justified as it had kept the IRA engaged for another generation.

While this was the third republican campaign against British rule in Ireland in the 20th century, it was the first where the focus of the whole IRA shifted decisively north (the first campaign took place during the Irish War of Independence, the second took place from 1942–1944, and a fourth was to take place from 1969–1997).

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 severely weakened it. In 1939 the IRA tried a bombing campaign in England to try to force British withdrawal from Northern Ireland. From 1942–1944 it also mounted an ineffective campaign in Northern Ireland. Internment on both sides of the border, as well as internal feuding and disputes over future policy, all but destroyed the organisation. These campaigns were officially called off on 10 March 1945. By 1947, the IRA had only 200 activists, according to its own general staff.

In principle, the IRA wished to overthrow both "partitionist" states in Ireland, both Northern Ireland and the Irish Free State, both of which it deemed to be illegitimate entities imposed by Britain at the time of the Anglo-Irish Treaty in 1922. However, in 1948 a General Army Convention issued General Order No. 8, prohibiting "any armed action whatsoever" against the forces of the recently proclaimed Republic of Ireland, amounting to a de facto recognition of the state. Under the new policy, IRA volunteers who were caught with arms in the Republic of Ireland were ordered to dump or destroy them and not to take defensive action.

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Wikipedia