The Irish Republic of the Army is regarded as one of the oldest, most professional and

most successful guerrilla armies of the 20th century.

Numerous struggles throughout the world have taken inspiration from its example.

Even their enemies and secret captured documents have described the IRA with a dedicated,

committed and formidable foe.

Who is this army?

And where did it come from?

Ireland was Britain's first colony, but not its last.

Many other native people suffered the yoke of the British Empire.

But in almost every generation, the Irish people rose up in rebellion.

The land today is dotted with the remains of forts built to keep watch over the onerooly

Irish.

But it was in the early 1900s that the most successful uprising took place.

In Dublin City, at Easter 1916, militant Irish Republicans staged an insurrection and declared

Ireland a republic, free from British rule.

The insurrection was short lived.

Leaders of the rising were arrested, imprisoned, then executed.

Their actions and sacrifice touched a deep nerve among the Irish people and inspired

new generation.

In the guerrilla campaign that followed, the newly formed Irish Republican army engaged

British forces at all levels.

In the countryside, their flying columns inflicted major casualties upon enemy forces.

...