Irish Republican Army

American  

noun

1. an underground Irish nationalist organization founded to work for Irish independence from Great Britain: declared illegal by the Irish government in 1936, but continues activity aimed at the unification of the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. IRA, I.R.A.

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Irish Republican Army British  

noun

1.  IRA.  a militant organization of Irish nationalists founded with the aim of striving for a united independent Ireland by means of guerrilla warfare

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Irish Republican Army Cultural  

1. A secret organization in Ireland that originally fought for Irish independence from Britain. After the division of Ireland in the early twentieth century into Northern Ireland, which remained united with Britain, and the Irish Free State, now called the Republic of Ireland, the IRA took as its goal the uniting of the entire island under the Republic. The IRA continues to pursue this goal; membership, however, is illegal in the Republic, and the IRA's Provisional Wing has practiced terrorism. (See Sinn Fein.)

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

Irish Republican Army

In that process, the Irish Republican Army and its allies disarmed more than seven years after the 1998 signing of the Good Friday Agreement.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 30, 2026

Dolours, a former Provisional Irish Republican Army militant, is visibly nervous.

From Salon ● Nov. 14, 2024

In 1989 she declared her support for the Irish Republican Army, a statement she retracted a year later.

From Seattle Times ● Jul. 26, 2023

The gates were erected in 1989 in response to threats from Irish Republican Army militants.

From Washington Times ● May 25, 2023

There were three regiments of the Irish Republican Army in line; they numbered fully two thousand men, and were clad in their new uniform.

From Ridgeway An Historical Romance of the Fenian Invasion of Canada by Dubh, Scian