List of weapons used by the Provisional Irish Republican Army explained

The following is a list of weapons used by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) during the Troubles.

Sources

See also: Improvised tactical vehicles of the Provisional IRA. During the initial phase of the Troubles (1969-1972), the Provisional IRA was poorly equipped and primarily used weapons from World War II. Beginning in the 1970s, the Provisional IRA began importing modern weapons from the United States, Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, and arms dealers in mainland Europe, the Middle East, and elsewhere.

Firearms

Handguns

ModelImageCaliberTypeOriginDetails
Pistol [1]
Pistol [2]
Pistol
Pistol Known to be used in some quantities from 1969-98.
Pistol Brazil
Smuggled from Libya.[3]
Pistol Several smuggled from the US following the IRA's 1994 ceasefire.[4]

Rifles

ModelImageCaliberTypeOriginDetails
In IRA inventory at the outset of The Troubles.[5]
In IRA arsenal from the outset of the Troubles.[6] [7] [8] Continued limited usage by the IRA into the late 1970s. Loaded .303 rifles found by Irish security forces at an IRA training camp in Kilkelly, County Mayo, as late as 1985; Lee-Enfield reportedly still in active use in sniper role in late 1980s.[9]
[10] [11]
[12]
Imported to Ireland in large numbers from 1970 onwards.[13] Still in widespread general use in early 1980s.[14]
AR-15Smuggled to Ireland by the Harrison Network.[15]
AR-180Semi-Automatic variant of the AR-18.
L1A1 Self-Loading RifleBattle rifle Rifles taken from the British Army.[16]
FN FALBattle rifle
Rifles used were of Chinese manufacture and had been originally supplied to the Palestinian Liberation Organization.[17]
Remington Model 742Remington Model 742 and various other civilian hunting rifles.[18]
[19]
Several smuggled from continental Europe in 1974.[20]
Valmet M62/SExample found by British soldier in possession of a woman in the Ardoyne area of Belfast in 1976. Serial number traced rifle to Harrison Network.[21]
Gewehr 43Example found by Irish security forces at Buncrana in County Donegal in 1976, serial number traced to Harrison Network. Example also demonstrated at an IRA training camp in 1983.
Beretta BM 59
FN Model 1949Surplus Venezuelan contract rifles.[22]
M14Battle rifle Smuggled to Ireland by the Harrison Network, seized upon arrival.
M1A
Stgw. 57Battle rifle Rifle found in IRA safehouse and bomb factory in Liverpool, England in 1975.[23] [24] Example also appeared in IRA arms shipment from the United States in the early 1980s.
Several traced to batch of 100 stolen from Norwegian Reserve base near Oslo in May 1984.[25] Already reportedly in IRA inventory as early as 1981 and used in attacks.[26] [27]

Assault rifles

ModelImageCaliberTypeOriginDetails
M16Assault rifle Smuggled to Ireland by the Harrison Network.
Assault rifle
Small numbers reported in IRA inventory by 1976.[28] Several attempts at importing from the Middle East and United States foiled in 1970s. Used in attacks and at training camps from at least 1983.[29] Provided by Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi 1985-1986. 1,000 rifles seized by French security forces aboard the Libyan arms freighter Eksund in 1987. IRA believed to still have approximately 650 AK-47/AKM rifles in inventory in 1992.
Assault rifle
Large haul of vz.58 rifles found in intercepted Libyan arms shipments in 1970s.[30] Vz. 58 reportedly acquired by IRA later and used in incident in which an Irish Army soldier and Garda officer were killed at Derrada Wood, Ballinamore, County Leitrim in December 1983.[31] Six rifles found in a car stopped at permanent British Army checkpoint on the main Dublin-Road in 1988, Libyan connection suspected.[32] [33] Example found in a hidden IRA arms dump in Newry, County Down, in 1989.[34] Weapons described as "Czech versions" of the AK-47/AKM were reportedly part of mid-1980s arms shipments from Libya.
SIG SG 540Assault rifle Used in Derry in 1984, reportedly taken from an INLA arms cache.[35]
Assault rifle
Assault rifle Used by the South Armagh Brigade from at least 1983.[36] FN CAL rifle used in killing of IPLO member in Newry in 1991 linked to 1985 attacks on British Army helicopters in South Armagh.[37] [38] The IRA reported using "Cal semi-automatic rifles" in an attack in north Antrim in 1985[39] and in Belfast in 1987.[40]
Assault rifle First documented in IRA armoury in early 1985[41] notably before some regular militaries who had ordered the FNC.[42] Widespread usage with forty examples recovered by British security forces by 1991.[43]
Assault rifle
Romanian variant of Russian AK-47 and AKM. Provided by Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. AIM models used.[44]
Assault rifle
A 5.45×39mm round was extracted from a British soldier shot in an IRA ambush in August 1992 in County Tyrone. Security sources suspected the IRA had acquired AK-74 rifles in the former Soviet bloc, or it was part of an earlier Libyan shipment.[45] [46]
Assault rifle Reportedly, the IRA purchased at least 20 examples in late 2001.[47]

Sniper rifles

ModelImageCaliberTypeOriginDetails
Anti-materiel rifle Used during the South Armagh Sniper campaign.[48]
Anti-materiel rifle Used during the South Armagh Sniper campaign.[49]
Tejas rifle Anti-materiel rifle Bolt-action .50 BMG rifle[50] manufactured by former Barret employee Ron Freshour of Texas. Dubbed the "Tejas rifle" by security forces and media after being seized in Belfast with "Tejas" found engraved on stock.[51]
Anti-materiel rifle Intelligence reports suggested the IRA had imported weapons from Estonia following their 1994 ceasefire, including the V-94 12.7mm sniper rifle.[52]
1993 newspaper report alleged IRA was in possession of the rifle.[53] Attempt to smuggle Dragunov rifles from the USA in late 1990s foiled by the FBI.[54]
Sniper rifle [55]
Sniper rifle Recovered by British security forces from an IRA arms haul in West Belfast in 1992.[56] [57]

Submachine guns

ModelImageCaliberTypeOriginDetails
Submachine Gun Used from the outset of the Troubles, including some from the IRA in the 1920s and also the later simplified M1 model.[58] Less common by the late 1970s but reportedly still seeing usage in early 1980s.[59]
StenSubmachine Gun [60]
M3Submachine Gun Regular and suppressed versions.[61]
Submachine Gun [62]
Submachine Gun Some examples stolen from the Irish Army.
Submachine Gun Given to the IRA by Greek Cypriot group EOKA.
SterlingSubmachine Gun
F1Submachine Gun Single gun stolen from the Australian Army in Adelaide in 1972. Recovered from safehouse of Belfast IRA commander Brendan Hughes in 1974.[63] [64]
Sa vz. 23[65]
Submachine gun [66]
Submachine Gun [67]
Submachine Gun Seized from the Harrison Network by the FBI in 1981.
Submachine Gun
Submachine Gun
Several seized aboard the Libyan arms freighter Eksund in 1987, reportedly fitted with silencers.[68] Separately, examples confiscated from the INLA and IPLO in late 1980s and early 1990s.[69]

Machine guns

ModelImageCaliberTypeOriginDetails
Stolen along with other firearms (including Bren guns) during raid on Fórsa Cosanta Áitiúil (FCA) barracks in Midleton, County Cork, in February 1970.[70]
One used intensively by the IRA in the Ballymurphy area of Belfast in 1972,[71] [72] captured by British Army in February 1977.[73] Another Lewis gun was found in an IRA arms dump outside Kildare in January 1990.[74] [75]
Four Besa machine guns found in IRA arms dump outside Kildare in January 1990.
Widespread usage in 1970s. Still in IRA arsenal as of 2005, according to IICD chairman General John de Chastelain.[76]
[77] [78]
Six M60s and forty-six[79] M16s stolen in raid on National Guard armoury in Danvers, Massachusetts in August 1976 by the Irish and Italian mafias and purchased by the Harrison Network. Five M60s arrived in Ireland in late 1977, sixth delayed to 1979.[80] [81] [82] Two more M60s seized by police in large weapons shipment at Dublin port in 1979.
Stolen from the Norwegian Army in 1984, security sources theorised an unknown quantity of MG3s were smuggled to Ireland in the late 1980s/early 1990s.[83] Example recovered from an IRA unit arrested in County Donegal in September 1992.[84]

The IRA imported forty MAGs from Libya in the 1980s. British licensed-built L7 version captured from a British Army unit in Tyrone in 1992.[85]
First publicly displayed by the IRA in 1977.[86] IRA believed to have smuggled at least two examples into Ireland and used in several attacks on British helicopters in the 1980s. Example found with ammunition by security forces in IRA arms dump in West Belfast in 1986.[87]

Security forces estimated the IRA imported twenty-six DShK machine guns from Libya in 1980s.

Shotguns

Explosives

ModelImageTypeOriginDetails
The IRA employed ANFO, Gelignite, Goma-2[92] and Semtex.[93] [94]
Examples discovered in a large hidden arms bunker under a farm outhouse in Gormanston, County Meath in 1991.[95]

Used in IRA attacks in early 1980s.[96] At least 600 F1 grenades were seized aboard the freighter Eksund in 1987.[97]
A quantity was found by British security forces in Derry in 1988.[98]

Anti-tank weapons

ModelImageCaliberTypeOriginDetails
Two examples[100] recovered, one in Belfast in late 1971[101] and another in Derry following Operation Motorman in 1972.[102] Derry rifle linked to attack on British Army Saracen APC. .55 rounds found in hidden IRA arms dump in County Donegal in early 1974.[103]
In August 1971 the search of a farmhouse outside Cookstown, County Tyrone, by the British Army and RUC uncovered IRA training literature, including a manual for a "Solothurn 20mm anti-tank rifle."[104] IRA unit employed a Solothurn 20mm anti-tank rifle in a battle with the British Army along the County Louth border in January 1972, later captured by Gardaí.[105] Solothurn S-18/1000 seized at New York home of IRA gun runner George Harrison in June 1981.[106] [107] Crate of 20×138mmB Solothurn ammunition found in IRA arms dump outside Kildare in 1990.
3.5 in (88.9 mm) Several imported from the United States in the late 1950s but first employed by the IRA in late 1971, in Belfast. Supplanted by the RPG-7.[108] [109]
40mm (launcher only, warhead diameter varies)
25 launchers and 496 warheads smuggled to Ireland from Libya in late 1972[110] and further shipments from Libya in 1985-1987. Attempted import from Lebanon intercepted in Antwerp in 1977. First used in 1972, with nearly two hundred attacks involving the RPG-7 recorded by 1981.[111] The IRA was believed to still have upwards of 40 launchers in inventory in 1992.[112]
Fired on at least three occasions in Belfast in 1983.[113] [114] Example discovered in an IRA arms dump in County Cavan in March 1988.[115]
105mm Several seized during the capture of Libyan arms aboard the freighter Eksund in 1987.[116]
Improvised launcher First appeared in 1985. Heavy recoil left bruising on operator's shoulder. Succeeded by the Projected Recoilless Improvised Grenade.[117]
Drogue bomb Unknown Anti-armour grenade manufactured by the IRA. First appeared in late 1987. Design resembled a WW1-era German hand grenade, with a tin can filled with Semtex with a handle and a parachute device. Parachute ensured a copper cone attached to the top was the first point of contact, facilitating a shaped charge effect.
Improvised launcher First appeared in 1991. Design, including a counter-balance mechanism, believed to have been inspired by the Armbrust launcher.
Several smuggled from the United States in the late 1990s.

Flamethrowers

ModelImageTypeOriginDetails
Single example seized at New York home of IRA gun runner George Harrison in June 1981.

IRA acquired ten flamethrowers from Libya in the 1980s.[120] Used in assault on border base in County Fermanagh in 1989.[121] LPO-50 found in Belfast by security forces before it could be used in late 1988,[122] example also discovered in Derry in 1989[123] and in County Meath in 1994.[124]
Self-propelled flamethrower Improvised flamethrower using a liquid manure spreader filled with fuel mix.[125] Employed in a number of attacks on British Army fortifications in the early 1990s.[126] [127]

Mortars

ModelImageCaliberTypeOriginDetails
360mm"Barrack buster" most powerful of a series of IRA home-made mortars from early 1970s onwards. British military analysts assessed the conventional-style bipod and baseplate 60mm "Mark 6" model in 1993 as "extremely well-made and may easily be mistaken for military models."[128] [129]
82mm
Several (reportedly 12) seized aboard the Libyan arms freighter Eksund in 1987.[130] [131]

See also

Bibliography

Notes and References

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  4. News: Smuggler: I regret sending guns to Provos. Suzanne Breen. Belfasttelegraph. 26 August 2015. 30 November 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20230517002250/https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/sunday-life/news/smuggler-i-regret-sending-guns-to-provos/31479701.html. May 17, 2023.
  5. Book: Ó Faoleán, Gearóid. A Broad Church: The Provisional IRA in the Republic of Ireland, 1969-1980. 2019. Irish Academic Press. 9781785372452. en.
  6. News: Why the 114-year-old Lee-Enfield rifle is only now being retired by the Canadian Armed Forces National Post . National Post . 17 August 2018 . Hopper . Tristin. https://archive.today/20230614033652/https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/why-the-114-year-old-lee-enfield-rifle-is-only-now-being-retired-by-the-canadian-armed-forces. June 14, 2023.
  7. News: Jackson . George . IRA quiescent during killings, says Derry OC . 2022-03-08 . The Irish Times . en. https://archive.today/20230614033906/https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ira-quiescent-during-killings-says-derry-oc-1.1304877. June 14, 2023.
  8. The Troubles #14 (June 1972), page 31.
  9. "Kilkelly an IRA training camp - Gardaí", Mayo News, 20 March 1985.
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