December 1969 – May 1972 (sporadic actions occur after 1972 until the mid 70's)
Allegiance
Official Irish Republican Army
Size
500 - 1,000
Area of operations
Belfast, Northern Ireland
Nickname(s)
Irish National Liberation Front (NLF)
Main actions
Battle of the Falls
1972 Aldershot bombing
Battle at Springmartin [1]
Battle of Lenadoon
Commanders
Notable commanders
Jim Sullivan Joe McCann Billy McMillen[2]
Military unit
The Official IRA's Belfast Brigade was founded in December 1969 after the Official IRA itself emerged in December 1969, shortly after the beginning of the Troubles, when the Irish Republican Army split into two factions. The other was the Provisional IRA. The "Officials" were Marxist-Leninists and worked to form a united front with other Irish communist groups, named the Irish National Liberation Front (NLF). The Brigade like the pre-split IRA brigade before the split had three battalions, one in West Belfast, one in North Belfast and the third in East Belfast. The Belfast Brigade was involved in most of the biggest early confrontations of the conflict like the Falls Curfew in 1970, the battles that followed after the introduction of Internment without trial in 1971 and Volunteers joined forces with the Provisional brigade to fight the British Army and UVF during the Battle at Springmartin in 1972.[3][4] The first Commanding Officer (CO) of the brigade was veteran Billy McMillen who fought during the IRA Border Campaign. Shortly after the death of Official IRA Belfast "Staff Captain" Joe McCann in April 1972, the battalion structure of the brigade was done away with and command centralized under McMillen.[5]
^McGuire, Maria
^Toolis, Kevin (2011) Rebel Hearts. Pan MacMillan, p 205. ISBN 1447217489
^McGuire, Maria. To Take Arms: My Year with the IRA Provisionals. Viking Press, 1973. p. 126, ASIN: B007EQD12C
^Coogan, Tim Pat. The Troubles: Ireland's Ordeal and the Search for Peace. Palgrave Macmillan, 2002. p.113
^Jack Holland & Henry McDonald - INLA: Deadly Divisions p.51
and 25 Related for: Official IRA Belfast Brigade information
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