Ski Masks and Assault Rifles: A Brief History and Examination of the Violent Politics of the Irish Republican Army in the 1960s and early-1970s.

Northern Irelands Civil Rights movement, the IRA, and the regional violence are what characterize it in the 1960s The following paper prefaces its larger point of contention with a look at the legacy of 20th century civil disobedience in Northern Ireland prior to the 1960s. Next, this paper shifts its focus onto the larger role and significance of the Provisional Irish Republican Army with a conclusion centered on the events of Bloody Sunday. Ultimately, this work suggests that the transformative nature of politics in Ireland during this period warrant a greater level of attention than normally given to it. Through careful analysis of key moments in the 1960s one is able to see the greater significance behind moments that led not only to the rise of Sinn Fein but also the collapse of major systems of government. While the violent nature of the region is important to ones understanding of the socio-cultural experience of Northern Ireland at the time it by no means defines the period. The Northern Ireland seen today looks much differently than the one found in the 1960s thanks in part to the efforts of likeminded Irish Republicans