A brief history of Belfast IRA newspapers, part 2 (1946-1970)

This is the second part of an introduction to the newspapers published by the Belfast IRA from the 1920s to 1970. You can read part one, covering the period to 1945, here. After the demise of Republican News in 1946, a monthly publication was resumed in November 1951, called Resurgent Ulster, deliberately referencing the newspaper

Jimmy Steele, Mullingar, July 1969

For more on this, see the previous post here.

Some audio from Jimmy Steele, 6th July 1969

Here is some audio from Jimmy Steele’s speech at the Barnes-McCormick re-burial at Ballyglass cemetery, Mullingar, on the 6th July 1969. The first is the widely repeated reference to Chairman Mao: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BxTltWQGBEkgV2JFemNrNGo2ZW9HOHRJdTItVmFiYW5oWHJF The second is the close of the speech with a widely-omitted reference to James Connolly: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BxTltWQGBEkgaVlXTkpCOUM1Nk1teHdNMzZ1UFdWUmhsYnpB   You can view some footage of the reburial here.

Conversant with Chairman Mao? The speech that split the IRA, July 1969.

Almost all those involved in the IRA in 1969 cite a speech given by Jimmy Steele in Ballyglass cemetery in July that year as a pivotal moment en route to the splits that occurred, firstly between Belfast and Dublin that September and, then, across the IRA as a whole. The content of the speech, delivered at the re-burial of two IRA volunteers

List of O/Cs of Belfast IRA, 1924-69.

The following is a draft list of the officers commanding the IRA’s Belfast battalion (the name normally given to its structures in the city) from 1924 to 1969. The list is based on a variety of sources. There are gaps and may well be omissions since those listed are those named in accounts of different

The Northern Directory of Republican Clubs, 1967.

As a brief follow up to the footage of the Barnes-McCormick reburial in 1969 and much of the mythology that has developed around the IRA split, here’s a news item from The Irish Times on 18th March 1967: REPUBLICANS TO DEFY BAN The Northern Directory of Republican Clubs announced yesterday that it will hold a

Barnes & McCormick funeral footage, 1969

Quick link to footage posted up on youtube…. (see link below). Famously, this is where the 1969 IRA split was articulated. Jimmy Steele gave a well-known speech at it (reproduced in various histories of the IRA). Ironically, the commentary on events that day is largely from those who ended on the other side of the