- The Irish Republican Army, also called as Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) was an Irish republican paramilitary organisation that sought to remove Northern Ireland from the United Kingdom and bring about an independent republic encompassing all of Ireland.
- It emerged in December 1969—after the beginning of the Troubles—when the Irish Republican Army split over ideology and how to respond to attacks on Catholics in Northern Ireland. Catholic demands for civil rights had been met with violence from Ulster loyalists and from the government of Northern Ireland, culminating in the August 1969 riots and deployment of British troops.
- The Provisional IRA was the biggest and most active republican paramilitary during the Troubles. The IRA is a proscribed organisation in the UK under the Terrorism Act 2000 and an unlawful organisation in the Republic of Ireland. The United States includes them in the category of “other selected terrorist groups also deemed of relevance in the global war on terrorism”