NORAID

NORAID or the Irish Northern Aid Committee is an Irish American fundraising organization founded after the start of the Troubles in Northern Ireland in 1969, best known for raising funds for the Provisional Irish Republican Army.

NORAID was organized and directed by Michael Flannery, who in the 1920s was a member of the IRA North Tipperary Brigade.

Unionist politicians and the British, Irish and United States governments have accused NORAID of being a front for the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA), and that it was involved in fundraising for IRA arms importation from North America since the early 1970s. This accusation has always been denied by NORAID. NORAID's former leader, Martin Galvin, was banned from the United Kingdom in the 1980s. The charge was also disputed by historian Ed Moloney who stated that the funds raised by NORAID went largely to the families of IRA volunteers, and that Clan na Gael was the principal financial backer of the Provisional IRA.

By the late 1980s NORAID was a loose federation of local branches centred on fundraising. Sinn Féin, the political party associated with the IRA, wanted NORAID to expand its activities. At the end of 1988, NORAID agreed to try to broaden its appeal and its executive committee was expanded. Sinn Féin sent an organizer to the United States, and more time and money was devoted to lobbying and propaganda.

Then-president Pat O'Connell said "Americans are fed up with their own nation's politics. They sure as hell don't want to get involved in Irish politics. They only want to give money for the prisoners and their families, not for political lobbying." O'Connell subsequently opened a separate NORAID office in the Bronx.

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