Series 1 - The Border Campaign

18 items

The Border Campaign. 'The Border Campaign' was launched by the I.R.A. on 11 December 1956, and was officially ended on 26 February 1956. 'Operation Harvest', as the plan for campaign was named by the I.R.A. planners, began on the night of 11 December 1956 with attacks on a number of targets north of the border including radio transmitters, bridges, and a Territorial Army headquarters. The aim of the campaign was to end partition and established a 32 county republic. The vast majority of the operations carried out by the I.R.A. took place north of the border. The scale of violence during the campaign was at a far lower level than the post 1969 'Troubles'; it cost the lives of eight I.R.A. members, four Republican supporters and six Royal Ulster Constabulary members. The governments of both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland reacted to the campaign by introducing internment without trial. In the 1957 general election four Sinn Féin candidates including Ruairí Ó Brádaigh were elected to Dail Eireann. However they abstained from taking their seats. Ó Brádaigh was active in the I.R.A. during the campaign and was sentenced to six months in prison in 1957, after which he was interned without trial at The Curragh camp. He escaped and became Chief of Staff of the I.R.A. Following the end of interment in 1959 he was able to appear in public again. In the 1961 general election Ó Bradaigh failed to hold his seat. The material in this series doesn't relate directly to Ó Bradaigh's experiences during the campaign; some of it was apparently collected by him later. Some items in this series consists of statements issued on behalf of the Irish Republican Publicity Bureau by "J. McGarrity", which is in fact a nom de plume. Some statements issued under that name may have been written in part by Ruairí Ó Brádaigh.

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27/06/2013
29/07/2025