It is published at unknown printing presses and distributed to or shared with IRA volunteers as they are accepted for active duty.
The Green Book is issued to IRA volunteers as part of their training and is considered a secret document which should not be revealed to, or discussed with non-IRA members.
These updates are made to reflect changes in: While splits in the IRA since 1922 up to the 1950s do not appear to be noted in the 1956 document, developments in the fields of insurgency and counter-insurgency are.
The 1956 edition on the other hand discusses the use of the IRA flying column - en masse attacks by large groups of volunteers against concentrations of the enemy.
It provides information on the Kerne, the battle of the Yellow Ford, Owen Roe O'Neill, the 1798 Rebellion and United Irishmen, James Fintan Lalor, and the "Tan War".
This discussion is largely romanticised and aimed at demonstrating a lineage of "armed struggle" from which the IRA assumes its legitimacy in the fight against "occupying forces in Ireland".
One entry in this discussion is the fact that the efforts of IRA guerrillas were the direct cause in ending the British occupation of the 26 counties of Ireland—the territory that would become the Irish Free State, and later the Republic of Ireland.
This indicates both a "southern" perspective on Irish independence and an underestimation of the resistance they would encounter during the Border Campaign, that was aimed at the end of British rule in Northern Ireland.
With the publication of the 1977 edition this assumption of an easy victory in ending partition had been dropped and the "Long War" strategy adopted.
""Another aspect of economic imperialism at work is the export of raw, unprocessed materials: live cattle on the hoof - mineral wealth, fish caught by foreign trawlers, etc.
Further, from 1956 on, the Free State abandoned all attempts to secure an independent economy, and brought in foreign multi-national companies to create jobs instead of buying their skills and then sending them home gradually.
It is against such political economic power blocks East and West and military alliances such as NATO and the Warsaw Pact.
The 1956 edition would have also been published for use during a period when the failed S-Plan or Sabotage campaign was within living memory of younger IRA volunteers.
is such by his own choice, his convictions being the only factor which compels him to volunteer, his objectives the political freedom and social and economic justice for his people.
From the PIRA's point of view, this would have been necessary to combating competing interpretations encountered in the community and the propaganda efforts of the enemy they faced: "Before we go on the offensive politically or militarily we take the greatest defensive precautions possible to ensure success, e.g. we do not advocate a United Ireland without being able to justify our right to such a state as opposed to partition; we do not employ revolutionary violence as our means without being able to illustrate that we have no recourse to any other means.
Or in more everyday simple terms: we do not claim that we are going to escalate the war if we cannot do just that; we do not mount an operation without first having ensured that we have taken the necessary defensive precautions of accurate intelligence, security, that weapons are in proper working order with proper ammunition and that the volunteers involved know how to handle interrogations in the event of their capture etc, and of course that the operation itself enhances rather than alienates our supporters.
"The 1977 edition describes the military objectives of the IRA as: "The position of the Irish Republican Army since its foundation in 1916 has been one of sustained resistance and implacable hostility to the forces of imperialism, always keeping in the forefront of the most advanced revolutionary thinking and the latest guerrilla warfare techniques in the world.
Rather than the tactic of surgical strike, the tactic of continuous escalation or the strategy of what has been called the PIRA's Tet offensive is preferred: "By now it is clear that our task is not only to kill as many enemy personnel as possible but of equal importance to create support which will carry us not only through a war of liberation which could last another decade but which will support us past the 'Brits Out' stage to the ultimate aim of a Democratic Socialist Republic.
The sabotage techniques and weaponry available at the time had mostly ceased to be commonly used by the late 1970s, namely: Detonators are also detailed with physical descriptions, handling instructions, and burning rates.
Small arms listed range from the revolver, to the shotgun and submachine gun up to the flame thrower, which was almost never used, except for an attack on British soldiers of the King's Own Scottish Borderers.
A generation earlier, IRA units operating during the S-Plan / Sabotage campaign did not have access to the above material, with the exception of Gelignite.
IRA explosive devices of the 1930s and 1940s were prepared using materials such as Potassium chlorate, Carbide, Saxonite, Iron Oxide, Aluminium, sulfuric acid etc.
The 1977 edition stresses that the volunteer is ultimately responsible within the framework of the movement for ensuring the formulation, dissemination and efficiency of propaganda.
This process was to begin within the mind of the volunteer himself: "A new recruit's immediate obstacle is the removal of his (her) ignorance about how to handle weapons, military tactics, security, interrogations etc.
's [Intelligence Officer] how to create an effective intelligence network; a Cumann na mBan Chairman's how best to mount a campaign on a given issue, e.g. H Blocks etc., and for all members of the movement regardless of which branch we belong to, to enhance our commitment to and participation in the struggle through gaining as comprehensive an understanding as possible of our present society and the proposed Republican alternative through self and group education.
"The 1956 edition is a lot more practical, suggesting a more limited, less well oiled organisational machine of the IRA then than today: "The main channels of information available to the guerrillas are newspapers, leaflets, radio, word of mouth.
By 1977, with the launching of the IRA's campaign in Northern Ireland in 1969, the technical capabilities & anti-insurgency apparatus of the RUC, as well as the Regular and Specialist forces of the British Army had advanced.
The combination of these factors alongside political determination to capture and kill IRA forces and subdue the nationalist population of Northern Ireland led to changes in the Green Book.
The remainder of the document persists in a similar vein, constantly stressing the dangers of submitting to interrogation techniques.
Most likely this was a result of experience gained throughout the 1970s and during the Border Campaign when arrest and imprisonment of IRA/PIRA volunteers seriously impacted the operational effectiveness of the respective organizations.