[13][14] During the 1960s, the Irish Republican Army and Sinn Féin under the leadership of Cathal Goulding, radically re-assessed their ideology and tactics after the dismal failure of the IRA's Border Campaign in the years 1956–62.

In addition, the death of several militant OIRA figures such as Joe McCann in confrontations with British soldiers, enabled the Goulding leadership to call off their armed campaign, which it had never supported wholeheartedly.

Meanwhile, Costello's emerging anti-ceasefire faction, amongst them several Belfast men (including Ronnie Bunting, a Protestant nationalist), carried out a series of robberies in the Republic to pay for arms.

Local branches of Official Sinn Féin throughout the island of Ireland announced they were resigning from the party and on 8 December the dissidents met in the Spa Hotel in Lucan, Dublin.

[23] At a press conference five days later Costello read a statement outlining how the IRSP would seek to build a "broad front" on the basis of demanding a British declaration of intent to withdraw from Northern Ireland, the release of all internees and sentenced "political prisoners", abolish all repressive legislation, outlaw discrimination of all kinds, and "agree to compensate the Irish People for the exploitation which has already occurred."

However, the INLA eventually deemed Official IRA member Jim Flynn the person responsible, and he was shot dead in June 1982 in the North Strand, Dublin, very close to the spot where Costello died.

The INLA leadership later admitted that their failure to do this was a serious weakness, but argued to maintain recruitment and pursue its political ambitions it had to stay in touch with the "civilian" population.

The first action to bring the INLA to international notice was its assassination on 30 March 1979 of Airey Neave, the British Conservative Party's spokesman on Northern Ireland and one of Margaret Thatcher's closest political supporters.

The nauseous Margaret Thatcher snivelled on television that he was an 'incalculable loss' – and so he was – to the British ruling class.The attention the INLA received following the death of Airey Neave led to it being declared an illegal organisation in Britain and Northern Ireland.

Before the conflict broke out there were attempts to recruit veteran Provisional IRA leader Seán Mac Stíofáin as INLA chief of staff in the hope he would help stabilise the organisation.

The unauthorised kidnapping of a Dublin bank manager from his home in January 1980 led to further internal anger and an operation in England was planned to demonstrate that the INLA was still capable of carrying on its war.

As the 1 March 1976 deadline for the removal of special category status approached the Northern Ireland Office met with a council of representing all paramilitary organisations, loyalist and republican, inside Long Kesh prison.

1980s 1990s There was a bitter clash over the IRSP's share of money raised in an American fund-raising tour undertaken by three of the hunger-strikers' relatives, Liz O'Hara, Malachy McCreesh, and Seán Sands.

[37] His release coincided with the theft of 1,000 lb (450 kg) of Frangex commercial explosives from the Tara mines in County Tipperary, enabling the organisation to carry out an "intensive" bombing campaign.

[52] Attacks against British security forces continued also, but a number of operations killed Catholic children, with three dying in Belfast as a result of INLA explosions in a five-month period.

Over one hundred bullets were exchanged in a shootout before Gardai of the Special Branch task force made their way into the farmhouse, subsequently causing McGlinchey to call for a priest in surrender.

Gerard Steenson was given five life sentences for the deaths of the same five people that Kirkpatrick himself had been convicted of, these included Ulster Defence Regiment soldier Colin Quinn, shot in Belfast in December 1980.

The old arms links were re-activated by the Dublin-Munster grouping as part of an effort to either create a new republican socialist movement or reform the existing INLA; between 1984 and late 1986 they held meetings with Al-Fatah and other Arab sympathisers in Prague, East Berlin, Warsaw, and Tunisia.

[74] Kennaway held the driver hostage and Glennon gave cover with a .22 Derringer pistol while McWilliams opened the side door and fired seven shots at Wright with his PA63 semi-automatic.

[80] On 15 August 1998 the RIRA exploded a car bomb in the centre of Omagh, County Tyrone killing 29 people and injuring 220 others, in what became the deadliest attack of the Troubles inside Northern Ireland.

In 1997, an INLA man named John Morris was shot dead by Garda Síochána (the Republic's police force) in Dublin during the attempted robbery of a newspaper distributor's depot in Inchicore.

[88] In December 2007, disturbances broke out at an INLA parade in the Bogside in Derry between spectators and Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) officers attempting to arrest four of the marchers.

[89] In the Seventeenth and Eighteenth IMC reports the INLA was said to remain a threat, with a desire to mount attacks that could well be more dangerous in the future, but was characterized as being largely a criminal enterprise at that time.

[93] In March 2009 it was reported that the INLA had stood down its Dublin Brigade in order to allow its army council to carry out an internal investigation into allegations of drug dealing and criminality.

[99][100] It is unknown how true this claim is, as local residents have been vocal about their demands for the centre to be relocated due to anti-social behaviour (primarily street fights, drug abuse and sexual acts in public).

[100][101] On 11 October 2009, speaking at the graveside of its founder Seamus Costello in Bray, the INLA formally announced an end to its armed campaign, stating the current political framework allowed for the pursuit of its goals through peaceful, democratic means.

Their avowed Marxism made them beyond help from Catholic Irish-America, who had traditionally been a lifeline for funds and weapons for Irish republicans engaged in armed struggle against British rule in Ireland.

[2] An arms smuggling network was later established where guns would be channelled from a Palestinian source based in Lebanon via West Germany (and later Switzerland) to a left-wing sympathiser in France and then to Ireland.

This new network was established by the INLA faction loyal to Gerard Steenson, the original Middle East arms route remained in the hands of the older Dublin-based leadership.

A large arms haul was secured through a Palestine Liberation Organization contact in Prague which included a hundred man-portable anti-tank weapons, forty AK-47 rifles, three 12.7mm heavy machine guns, and two 80mm mortars.