[9] The OIRA hoped to do the same with the newly formed INLA which used the cover name People's Liberation Army (PLA) in its first few months.

[14][15] In September 1976 however the INLA was accused of a double sectarian murder when Volunteers from the Belfast brigade shot dead two Protestant civilians at their home in Ormonde Park, Finaghy.

[22][23] This bombing prompted an angry response from residents of the Divis Flats, and about 200 women held a protest march at the IRSP's offices on the Falls Road.

[26] Also during the period as Steenson being Operations Officer the INLA for the first time in its history began targeting known members of Loyalist paramilitary groups.

In March 1981 UDA member and Belfast city councillor Sammy Millar, a member of the Ulster Democratic Party (the UDA's political wing) was shot in his home on the Shankill Road, by a unit of the Belfast INLA, the attack left Millar with serious injuries.

In October of the same year an INLA unit assassinated William McCullough a leading member of the UDA's West Belfast Brigade shooting him dead inside his Shankill Road home on Denmark Street.

It was during this period while McCartan was OC that the Belfast INLA moved into extortion and racketeering, damaging what popular support they had in the city.

[citation needed] The INLA Belfast lost direction in the mid '80s and a feud with the newly created Irish People's Liberation Organisation (IPLO) weakened the group further.

[32][33][34] In January 1993 the brigade shot and seriously injured leading UVF member John "Bunter" Graham at his house on the Shankill Road.

[38][39] In February 1994 the INLA shot dead a Protestant doorman Jack Smyth, at the entrance to Bob Cratchits Bar, Lisburn Road, Belfast.

In April 1994 the INLA shot dead a member of the UDA, Gerald Evans, at his fishing tackle shop in Glengormley, County Antrim.

Six days later the INLA shot dead a civilian, Thomas Douglas, outside his workplace, Northern Ireland Electricity Headquarters, Stranmillis Road, Belfast.

During 1996 the feud claimed the lives of six people, including a nine-year-old girl who was shot by mistake by the Army Council faction in north Belfast.

[41] The first victim in the feud was Gino Gallagher who was shot dead in a Social Security Office on the Falls Road in January.

In May of that year, they shot dead an off-duty RUC officer Darren Bradshaw as he drank in a gay bar in Belfast's Docks area.

[48] During the large-scale rioting in Nationalist areas of Northern Ireland following the 1997 Drumcree march an INLA unit opened fire on British soldiers on patrol in Ardoyne, north Belfast.

[50] On 27 December 1997 in one of the INLA's most infamous actions, INLA Belfast man Christopher "Crip" McWilliams shot dead Billy Wright the leader of the loyalist paramilitary the Loyalist Volunteer Force (LVF) inside the Maze prison while Wright was being transferred to another part of the prison in a van.

[51][52] In January 1998 the INLA Belfast Brigade shot dead UDA leader Jim Guiney in his carpet shop in Dunmurry.