Talk:Provisional Irish Republican Army

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Provisional Irish Republican Army was a Social sciences and society good articles nominee, but did not meet the good article criteria at the time. There may be suggestions below for improving the article. Once these issues have been addressed, the article can be renominated. Editors may also seek a reassessment of the decision if they believe there was a mistake.

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Date	Process	Result
June 1, 2012	Good article nominee	Not listed
March 9, 2021	Good article nominee	Not listed

Facts from this article were featured on Wikipedia's Main Page in the "On this day..." column on July 28, 2008, July 28, 2009, July 28, 2010, July 28, 2013, July 28, 2015, July 28, 2018, July 28, 2020, and July 28, 2024.

Current status: Former good article nominee

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The contentious topics procedure applies to this article. This article is related to the Troubles, which is a contentious topic. Furthermore, the following rules apply when editing this article:

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There is a clear guideline on Wikipedia about the use of the word Terrorism. Please read it before editing: Wikipedia:Words to avoid#Contentious labels.

Shanahan citation

I can't edit the article since I don't have a user, but I just wanted to draw attention to a problem in a source cited in support of the claim that "Following partition, Northern Ireland became a de facto one-party state governed by the Ulster Unionist Party in the Parliament of Northern Ireland, in which Catholics were viewed as second-class citizens." The footnote cites p. 12 of Timothy Shanahan's book "The Provisional Irish Republican Army and the Morality of Terrorism". On that page, however, the author describes the "Standard Republican Narrative" of which he says that "I will not argue that these myths are false in all respects, but rather that they contain partial-truths at best and that the reality is considerably more complicated" (p. 11).

Semi-protected edit request on 11 March 2024

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Add the "anti-imperialist organization" tag Lajward.Candango (talk) 01:27, 11 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Not done: The article makes no mention of the IRA having an anti-imperialist stance. Although sources appear to exist that could support such a claim in the article, I also doubt that it would be considered a WP:DEFCAT; it might be an aspect of their motivations, but it's probably far from being their central ideology. Liu1126 (talk) 10:49, 11 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Semi-protected edit request on 6 July 2024

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The provisional IRA was NOT a “terrorist organisation,” it was the only defence Irish Catholic people had against the RUC and British Army, who were placing these innocent people in internment centres without crime or without trial simply for being Irish. Cárthach Leahy (talk) 19:37, 6 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Not done for now: please establish a consensus for this alteration before using the {{Edit semi-protected}} template. PianoDan (talk) 17:36, 10 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

"Officially known as"?

What does this phrase mean? Does it mean "self-described as"? In fact they self-described as "Óglaigh na hÉireann" (which does not translate as "Irish Republican Army" either but as "younglings of Ireland" or more idiomatically "Irish volunteers", IRA merely being a euphemism of no status from 1919 onwards). And that is also the title of the Irish Defence Forces, which surely have a higher claim on "officially" etc. 185.60.76.112 (talk) 11:35, 26 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

See the history section about their origins. The Banner talk 12:36, 26 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

That has nothing to do with the "officially known as" though - "officially" by what? What office or officer calls them this? 2A02:C7C:37D6:C100:885E:F169:EE60:F3F7 (talk) 20:07, 26 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

First PIRA public statement

The article states, "The Provisional IRA issued their first public statement on 28 December 1969." The citation is to a secondary source. Is this statement (or other PIRA statements) online anywhere? The CAIN website has an archive of IRA statements[1] but it's focused on the period after 1994. I'm really asking out of personal curiousity but this would probably be of interest to other readers. Prezbo (talk) 21:13, 25 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

On the Misuse of Past Tense References to the Provisional Irish Republican Army

To speak of the Provisional Irish Republican Army in the past tense is to indulge in fiction.

The organization endures; diminished, yes, but defunct?

Defunct, it is not.

This is no idle assertion but an incontrovertible fact, borne out by government records, journalistic accounts, and even elsewhere on this very site.

To persist in the past tense is to mislead, whether by design or by neglect.

Let the record stand as it is, not as some would prefer it to be. This page must be amended accordingly. TheWorkersRepublic (talk) 13:49, 31 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Can you cite your specific sources instead of preaching? Yue🌙 22:08, 31 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]