Editing Irish National Liberation Army (section)

===Armed campaign===
[[File:INLA members posing with weapons in South Armagh (1986).jpg|right|thumb|An INLA [[active service unit]] posing with weapons in [[County Armagh|South Armagh]], 11 November 1986]]

The National Liberation Army (NLA) announced its existence and claimed responsibility for several attacks on British security forces in a press release published in November 1975, sent to newspapers<ref>''Derry Journal'', 28 November 1975</ref> and diplomatic missions in London,<ref name="ciardp88"/> although the statement was issued too late to be included in the December issue of ''The Starry Plough''.

{{blockquote|We wish to issue the following press statement on behalf of the Army Council of the National Liberation Army. The NLA was recently formed with the aim of ending British Imperialist rule in Ireland and creating a 32 county Democratic Socialist Republic. As revolutionaries, we recognise the paramount necessity for the existence of an armed Anti-Imperialist organisation, which will play an effective role in the current struggle. We totally reject the right of Britain to interfere in Irish affairs and we are determined to resist any British-imposed solution, through the use of armed force against British Occupation Forces and their allies in Ireland.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Starry Plough, Vol. 1, No. 10 |url=https://www.leftarchive.ie/document/1888/ |website=Irish Left Archive |year=1976 |publisher=Cedar Lounge Revolution |access-date=12 May 2022}}</ref>}}

In February 1976 a statement was issued declaring that the "National Liberation Army" and "People's Liberation Army" (the [[nom de guerre]] employed by the INLA during its feud with the Official IRA) had merged to form a single organisation.<ref>''Irish Press'', 17 February 1976.</ref> Reportedly the People's Liberation Army name was chosen without the oversight of the group's Dublin-based leadership, although apparently throughout 1976 the INLA in Derry was still known to its own members and outsiders as the PLA.<ref>''Sunday Independent'', 5 September 1976.</ref> In July 1976 the PLA in Derry issued a lengthy statement concurring with a recent IRSP statement on recovering from the November split, and stressed the necessity of the PLA as a socialist alternative to the Provisional IRA in the fight against British imperialism.<ref>''Derry Journal'', 16 July 1975</ref> Journalists had already deduced the Irish National Liberation Army was the military wing of the IRSP following their November 1975 release, although the IRSP would only admit that they had accepted "protection" from "armed groups" in their feud with the Official IRA.<ref name="ciardp88">{{Cite web |url=https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP88-01314R000300600025-0.pdf |title=TOP K.G.B. MAN IN DUBLIN |first=Christopher |last=Dobson |access-date=14 September 2020 |archive-date=14 September 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200914231314/https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP88-01314R000300600025-0.pdf |url-status=dead}}</ref>

The INLA from its inception adopted a republican-paramilitary structure similar to the IRA. Under a chief of staff was an eight-man [[IRA Army Council|army council]], the ultimate decision-making body of the organisation. All major operations were supposed to be sanctioned by the army council. Under the army council was "general headquarters staff" (GHQ). They acted as couriers, supplying INLA units with what they dubbed "gear" or "logistics" - weapons and explosives. In return, GHQ received information on potential targets and proceeds from robberies. Next came the "brigades", which were generally much smaller than those of the Provisional IRA. The INLA did not re-organise its brigades into smaller cells as the Provisional IRA did in the late-Seventies, which proved extremely damaging during the [[Supergrass (informant)|supergrass trials]] of the mid-Eighties. The INLA leadership later admitted that their failure to do this was a serious weakness, but argued to maintain recruitment and pursue its political ambitions it had to stay in touch with the "civilian" population. In January 1983 the INLA leadership said they hoped to implement a more cellular system throughout the year but it's unlikely this plan to come to fruition in the wake of damaging police penetration.<ref name="Fortnight Publications 1983"/> However, interviewed in late 1983, then INLA leader Dominic McGlinchey asserted the cell system had been introduced throughout the organisation.<ref name="itdya"/>

[[File:Divis_Flats_Belfast_July_1992.jpg|right|thumb|Divis Flats, Belfast]]

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the INLA developed into a modest organisation in Northern Ireland, operating primarily from the [[Divis Flats]] in west [[Belfast]], which, as a result, became colloquially known as "the planet of the Irps" (a reference to the IRSP and the film ''[[Planet of the Apes (1968 film)|Planet of the Apes]]'').<ref>''The Lost Revolution: The Story of the Official IRA and the Workers' Party'', Brian Hanley and Scott Millar, Penguin Books, {{ISBN|1-84488-120-2}} p. 290</ref> They also had a large presence in [[Derry]] and the surrounding area, and all three of the INLA prisoners who died in the [[1981 Irish hunger strike]] were from [[County Londonderry]]. Northern County Armagh reportedly had a significant INLA/IRSP presence also.<ref name="Jack Holland pp.35-36"/>  In the Republic of Ireland the INLA/IRSP was primarily based in Dublin and [[Munster]].<ref name="Vincent Browne">{{Cite web |last=Vincent Browne |date=31 July 1985 |title=Inside the INLA |url=https://magill.ie/archive/inside-inla |access-date=31 July 2020 |archive-date=5 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200805051148/https://magill.ie/archive/inside-inla |url-status=live }}</ref> From 1982 onwards the INLA also established units in [[Newry]], [[Downpatrick]] and several rural border areas.<ref>{{citation |url=https://irsp.ie/Background/history/tapowerdoc.html |title=The Ta Power Document |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150215151048/https://irsp.ie/Background/history/tapowerdoc.html |archive-date=2015-02-15 |access-date=2021-12-24}}</ref> The first member of the security forces to be killed by the INLA was an RUC officer, Noel Davis, killed on 24 May 1975 by a [[booby trap]] bomb left in a car in Ballinahone, near [[Maghera|Maghera, County Londonderry]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=CAIN: Sutton Index of Deaths |url=http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/sutton/chron/1975.html |access-date=22 November 2014 |archive-date=14 May 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110514143816/http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/sutton/chron/1975.html |url-status=live }}</ref> During this period, the INLA competed with the Provisional IRA for members, with both groups in conflict with the [[British Army]] and the [[Royal Ulster Constabulary]]. The INLA leader in Belfast, Ronnie Bunting, called in claims of responsibility to the media by the code name "Captain Green".

The first action to bring the INLA to international notice was its assassination on 30 March 1979 of [[Airey Neave]], the [[British Conservative Party]]'s spokesman on Northern Ireland and one of [[Margaret Thatcher]]'s closest political supporters. Through the 1970s Neave, an influential [[Conservative Party (UK)|Tory]] Member of the [[House of Commons]], had been advocating within British political circles for an abandonment of the [[British Government]]'s strategy of a containment of Irish paramilitary violence in Northern Ireland against the British State, and for the adoption of a strategy of waging a military offensive against it seeking its martial defeat. This brought him to the attention of both the Provisional IRA and the INLA as a potential threat to their organisations and activities.<ref>Jack Holland & Henry McDonald : INLA Deadly Divisions pp 137</ref> The INLA issued a statement regarding the attack in the August 1979 edition of its publication ''[[The Starry Plough (newspaper)|The Starry Plough]]'':<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Holland, Jack |title=INLA Deadly Divisions |last2=McDonald, Henry |publisher=Poolbeg |year=1996 |isbn=1-85371-263-9 |pages=221}}</ref>

{{blockquote|In March, retired terrorist and supporter of capital punishment, Airey Neave, got a taste of his own medicine when an INLA unit pulled off the operation of the decade and blew him to bits inside the 'impregnable' Palace of Westminster. The nauseous Margaret Thatcher snivelled on television that he was an 'incalculable loss' – and so he was – to the British ruling class.}}

The attention the INLA received following the death of Airey Neave led to it being declared an illegal organisation in Britain and Northern Ireland. However, despite the "success" of the 30 March action, the INLA was facing internal turmoil. IRSP chairperson [[Miriam Daly]] threatened to resign over policy disagreements and perceived failings of the IRSP to raise funds, run in elections, and enact policy. Senior IRSP member Michael Plunkett was arrested after [[gardaí]] found bomb-making equipment in his flat in Dublin and later jumped bail and fled to Paris. A series of botched Middle East arms importation attempts precipitated tensions between Belfast and Dublin representatives to the INLA GHQ and [[Dessie Grew]] considered assassinating the leader of the Belfast faction opposed to the INLA chief of staff. Before the conflict broke out there were attempts to recruit veteran Provisional IRA leader [[Seán Mac Stíofáin]] as INLA chief of staff in the hope he would help stabilise the organisation. He was interested and met with INLA Army Council representatives on several occasions between 1978 and 1979 but nothing materialised. The unauthorised kidnapping of a Dublin bank manager from his home in January 1980 led to further internal anger and an operation in England was planned to demonstrate that the INLA was still capable of carrying on its war. An INLA [[Active service unit]] planted two 10 lb bombs at [[Netheravon]] British Army camp in the [[Salisbury Plain Training Area]]. Although only one bomb detonated & caused damage starting a fire, and injuring two soldiers, this action helped bind the organisation together.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/lords/1980/mar/17/prevention-of-terrorism-temporary | title=Prevention of Terrorism (Temporary Provisions) Act 1976 (Continuance) Order 1980 | work=Hansard | date=17 March 1980 | access-date=13 May 2021 | archive-date=28 February 2021 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210228142102/https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/lords/1980/mar/17/prevention-of-terrorism-temporary | url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last1=Holland, Jack |title=INLA Deadly Divisions |last2=McDonald, Henry |publisher=Poolbeg |year=1996 |isbn=1-85371-263-9 |pages=220–230}}</ref>
The INLA lost another of its founding leadership in 1980, when Ronnie Bunting was assassinated at his home.<ref name="dead">''Deadly Divisions'', p. 160</ref> Noel Lyttle, another Protestant member of the IRSP, was killed in the same incident. The [[Ulster Defence Association]], an [[Ulster Loyalism|Ulster loyalist]] paramilitary, claimed responsibility for both killings. Miriam Daly, who had resigned from the IRSP four months earlier, was killed by loyalist assassins in the same year. Although no group claimed responsibility, the INLA claimed that the [[Special Air Service]] (SAS) was involved in the killings of Bunting and Little. All three were strongly identified with the [[Anti H-Block|campaign against criminalisation]] of republican paramilitary prisoners.<ref>Jack Holland & Henry McDonald - INLA: Deadly Divisions pp.125-135</ref><ref name="exa2">{{Cite web |last=IRSP |date=November 1980 |title=Ronnie Bunting and Noel Lyttle |url=http://irsm.org/history/starryplough/bunting_lyttle.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100712225441/http://irsm.org/history/starryplough/bunting_lyttle.html |archive-date=12 July 2010 |access-date=6 January 2010 |publisher=The Starry Plough}}</ref>