Editing Irish National Liberation Army (section)

===Feuds and splits===
Holland and McDonald argue the "frenzy of activity generated under the rule of Dominic McGlinchey" had "masked the seriousness of the situation facing the IRSP and INLA. By 1984 the movement had "degenerated into a loosely knit group of often mutually suspicious fiefdoms." The IRSP took a more rigidly Marxist/Leninist line than that ever previously adopted by the movement in an attempt to delineate the IRSP/INLA more clearly from the Sinn Féin and the Provisional IRA. The adoption of this rigid line meant the effective abandonment of the broad front strategy as initially conceived by Seamus Costello. Widespread criminality and ruthless [[racketeering]] by the INLA in Belfast after the imprisonment of key activists following the supergrass trials brought the movement into further disrepute and the INLA leadership moved against the new Officer Commanding (OC) of the Belfast INLA. The INLA carried out a number of bomb attacks in 1985 but the INLA was more concerned with the internal battle for control of the disintegrating organisation. John O'Reilly, former OC of the Markets area of Belfast, emerged as the winner and usurped the Dundalk man McGlinchey had appointed to become chief of staff. John O'Reilly was regarded with suspicion by some within the INLA, he was dismissed from the organisation by Ronnie Bunting in the late 1970s after an internal inquiry into allegations of O'Reilly being a police informant.

In jail, the INLA began to break up into warring factions. By late 1984 they could be divided into three broad groupings; one centred around Gerard Steenson, a second that opposed him, and a third that associated with Tom McAllister. Steenson's men, who included Jimmy Brown, were angry and disillusioned at the way the INLA had developed since their arrest. Incidents such as the Darkley killings and the police penetration and corruption in Belfast convinced them that the INLA was beyond reform. Those opposed to Steenson were the de facto INLA leadership including [[Ta Power]] and John O'Reilly. Their priority was to preserve the INLA as an organisation. McAllister at first leaned towards O'Reilly but later veered towards those opposed to him.

O'Reilly saw the remnants of the original INLA organisation based in Dublin and Munster as a threat to his legitimacy as chief of staff. Harry Flynn and Gerry Roche were released from Portlaoise Prison in 1984 and set about trying to reconstruct the organisation founded by Costello. Gerry Roche won an agreement by a very narrow majority, on the Ard Comhairle of the lRSP to publish a newspaper. He wanted to call the paper "The Broad Front" and although permission was not granted he went ahead anyway, calling the paper "Freedom Struggle". In the editorial in the first and only issue, Flynn made reference to the tradition of Connolly, Mellowes and Costello but no mention was made of Marx, Engels or Lenin; this was viewed as a reflection of his disagreement with the new Marxist/Leninist line. In response, the O'Reilly faction tried to assassinate both Flynn and Roche. The old arms links were re-activated by the Dublin-Munster grouping as part of an effort to either create a new republican socialist movement or reform the existing INLA; between 1984 and late 1986 they held meetings with Al-Fatah and other Arab sympathisers in Prague, East Berlin, Warsaw, and Tunisia. In 1984 guns started coming into Ireland in modest amounts; Škorpion machine pistols, VZOR pistols, and grenades were smuggled, as well as some "remotes" for bomb detonators. Seamus Ruddy from Newry joined the INLA in Dublin in the 1970s. He was arrested in 1978 for smuggling arms but was acquitted. After dissension among local members, Ruddy drifted away from the main organisation and in 1983 went to [[Paris]] where he taught [[English language|English]]. He disappeared in late May 1985, after a meeting with three leading members of the INLA, one of them being John O'Reilly. The three were searching for arms and believed that Ruddy knew where they could be found. At the time, the INLA denied that it was involved with his disappearance and resisted pressure from the Ruddy family to help it locate his whereabouts. In late 1993, a former high-ranking member of the INLA, Peter Stewart, finally admitted that the INLA had killed Ruddy in Paris. Ruddy's remains were found there in 2017.<ref>{{Cite web |date=16 February 2011 |title=In France, uncovering North's grisly past |url=https://www.irishecho.com/2011/02/in-france-uncovering-norths-grisly-past-2/ |access-date=1 January 2019 |archive-date=13 June 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180613022739/https://www.irishecho.com/2011/02/in-france-uncovering-norths-grisly-past-2/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Holland, Jack 1994" /><ref name="Vincent Browne"/>

In 1987, the INLA and its political wing, the IRSP came under attack from the [[Irish People's Liberation Organisation]] (IPLO), an organisation founded by disaffected INLA members centred around Tom McAllister, Gerard Steenson, Jimmy Brown and [[Martin "Rook" O'Prey]] who had resigned or been expelled from the INLA.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Irish Nationalist & Irish Republican political groups |url=http://irishconflict.webs.com/nationalistparties.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110818162736/http://irishconflict.webs.com/nationalistparties.htm |archive-date=18 August 2011}}</ref> The IPLO's initial aim was to destroy the INLA and replace it with their organisation. Five members of the INLA were killed by the IPLO, including leaders Ta Power and John O'Reilly. The INLA retaliated with several killings of their own. After the INLA killed the IPLO's leader, Gerard Steenson in 1987, a truce was reached. Although severely damaged by the IPLO's attacks, the INLA continued to exist. The IPLO, which was heavily involved in drug dealing, was forcibly disbanded by the Provisional IRA in a [[Night of the Long Knives (1992)|large-scale operation in 1992]].

Directly after the feud in October 1987, the INLA received more damaging publicity when [[Dessie O'Hare]], an erstwhile INLA volunteer, set up his own group called the "Irish Revolutionary Brigade" and kidnapped a Dublin dentist named John O'Grady. O'Hare cut off two of O'Grady's fingers and sent them to his family in order to secure a [[ransom]]. O'Grady was eventually rescued and O'Hare's group arrested after several shootouts with armed [[Gardaí]]. The INLA disassociated itself from the action, issuing a statement saying O'Hare "is not a member of the INLA".<ref>Holland, McDonald, INLA Deadly Divisions, pp.304–305</ref> O'Hare later rejoined the INLA while in prison.

Following the feud the IRSP embraced a more explicitly left-wing ideological stance; declaring in the December 1987 issue of the ''Starry Plough'' the necessity to "break away from Left Republicanism and embrace the scientific socialism of [[Karl Marx|Marx]] and [[Friedrich Engels|Engels]] in order to analyse and thus formulate a political programme for the Irish revolution" and move beyond "republicanism/militarism." The politically minded faction within the movement hoped to build a left-republican alternative to [[Sinn Féin]]. However, militarist elements within the INLA were intent on a renewed armed campaign against British security forces and loyalists. A protracted internal power struggle ensued and in 1992 the main political spokespersons for the IRSP departed. In the early 1990s the INLA, particularly in Belfast, effectively became a proxy force for the Provisional IRA, carrying out attacks on loyalist paramilitaries using IRA intelligence. Many shootings were perceived as openly sectarian attacks on Protestants.<ref>Holland, McDonald, INLA Deadly Divisions, pp.248–280</ref>

On 14 April 1992, the INLA carried out its first killing in England after the death of Airey Neave, when they shot dead a recruiting army sergeant in [[Derby]] while he was leaving a British Army recruiting office.<ref>{{Cite web |title=CAIN: Chronology of the Conflict 1992 |url=http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/othelem/chron/ch92.htm |access-date=30 January 2015 |website=ulst.ac.uk |archive-date=5 March 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110305015936/http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/othelem/chron/ch92.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> In June 2010, Declan Duffy was charged with the killing,<ref>{{Cite news |date=30 June 2010 |title=Man charged over 1992 murder of soldier in Derby |work=BBC News |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10465407 |access-date=20 June 2018 |archive-date=7 September 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180907071309/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10465407 |url-status=live }}</ref> although he was released in March 2013, under the terms of the 1998 [[Good Friday Agreement]].<ref>[https://archive.today/20130624223448/http://www.thisisderbyshire.co.uk/Justice-totally-wrong-free-killer-Declan-Duffy/story-18554412-detail/story.html%23axzz2VMJ4LCV6 Justice system 'totally wrong' to free killer Declan Duffy, says victim's ex-wife] by Aly Walsh, Derby Telegraph, 29 March 2013</ref>

Dominic McGlinchey was killed in 1994 by unknown assailants after being released from prison the previous year.

On 16 June 1994 the [[Irish National Liberation Army Belfast Brigade|INLA's Belfast Brigade]] [[1994 Shankill Road killings|shot dead three]] members of the [[Ulster Volunteer Force]] (UVF); high-ranking UVF Belfast Brigade figure Trevor King and two other UVF members, on the Shankill Road in west Belfast, close to the Belfast headquarters of the UVF.<ref>{{Cite web |title=CAIN: Chronology of the Conflict 1994 |url=http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/othelem/chron/ch94.htm |access-date=22 November 2014 |archive-date=2 January 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190102135434/http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/othelem/chron/ch94.htm |url-status=live }}</ref>

In 1995, four members of the INLA, including chief of staff [[Hugh Torney (Irish republican)|Hugh Torney]], were arrested by Gardaí in [[Balbriggan]] while trying to smuggle weapons from Dublin to Belfast. Torney, with the support of two of his co-accused, called a ceasefire in exchange for favourable treatment by the [[Irish Government]]. Since Torney, who was chief of staff, under the INLA's rules lacked the authority to call a ceasefire (because he was incarcerated), he and the two men who supported him were expelled from the INLA.

Torney and one of those men, Dessie McCleery, as well as founder-member John Fennell, did not wish to surrender the leadership of the organisation. Their faction, known as the INLA/GHQ, assassinated the new INLA chief of staff, [[Gino Gallagher]]. After the INLA killed both McCleery and Torney in 1996, the rest of Torney's faction quietly disbanded.{{citation needed|date=September 2018}}

INLA gunmen opened fire on British soldiers in the [[Ardoyne]] area of North Belfast on 7 July 1997, when the [[Drumcree conflict]] triggered [[1997 nationalist riots in Northern Ireland|six days of fierce riots and widespread violence]] in several nationalist areas of Northern Ireland.<ref>{{Cite web |title=CAIN: Peter Heathwood Collection of Television Programmes – Search Page |url=http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/heathwood/static/1997.html |access-date=30 January 2015 |website=ulst.ac.uk |archive-date=8 June 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110608184801/http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/heathwood/static/1997.html |url-status=live }}</ref>