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

It took the bombing campaigns of the Irish Republican Army and episodes of Middle Eastern terrorism during the 1980s to catalyze real improvement.

From The Wall Street Journal

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

From Salon

One man startled us by saying he was a Palestinian who lived in Ireland and had once fought with and killed people for the Irish Republican Army but is now devoted to promoting peace.

From Salon

The immigration issue is eroding support for left-of-center Sinn Fein, the party once linked to the Irish Republican Army, which had been on track to become Ireland’s most popular party.

From Seattle Times

The now-vice principal spent decades involved in the Irish Republican Army, or I.R.A., a paramilitary organization that used violence to try to end British rule in the region.

From New York Times