Night of the Long Knives (1992)

Night of the Long Knives
Part of the Troubles
Date 31 October – 2 November 1992 Location Belfast Result Successful IRA operation Surrender of IPLO Belfast Brigade on 3 November and IPLO GHQ on 7 November.
Belligerents
Provisional IRA Belfast Brigade	Irish People's Liberation Organisation Belfast Brigade Irish People's Liberation Organisation Army Council
Strength
Up to 100 volunteers	Unknown
Casualties and losses
None	IPLOBB leader Sammy Ward shot dead about a dozen others shot and injured several others beaten and forced into exile

The Night of the Long Knives is the name given to the night in Belfast of 31 October 1992, when the Provisional IRA's Belfast Brigade launched a large military operation to wipe out the IPLO Belfast Brigade, who most Irish republicans in the city (especially in the IRA) felt were becoming an embarrassment to Irish republicanism due to their involvement in drug dealing, criminality and internal Irish republican feuds.

Background

The IPLO was created as an Irish Republican and Revolutionary socialist paramilitary organisation by Irish Republican Socialists. In 1986, expelled members of the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) and those unhappy within the organisation upset with the direction the INLA was going decided to form the Irish People's Liberation Organisation (IPLO), along with a small socialist political wing called the Republican Socialist Collective. When the IPLO was formed, its main goal was to wipe out the INLA and establish itself as the main Irish republican socialist movement. The feud lasted a year until a truce was called after several people on either side were killed. Important paramilitaries on both sides were killed, like Thomas "Ta" Power, Gerard Steenson, and Tom McAllister. It has been speculated that the IPLO killed Mary McGlinchey, a female INLA member and wife of the former INLA Chief of Staff Dominic McGlinchey, during the feud, although nothing has ever been proven and Mary McGlinchey's killers never claimed responsibility for the killing.

Throughout the IPLO's campaign from 1986 to 1992 it killed 22 people; 6 INLA members, 2 members of the British Security Forces, 2 loyalist paramilitaries, and 12 civilians,

The IPLO was one of the most sectarian republican paramilitary groups, often engaging openly in attacks on Protestant civilians. In 1987 an IPLO unit assassinated outspoken loyalist politician George Seawright, who had called for the killing of Catholics. In 1989 during the attack on the Orange Cross Social Club they killed a Red Hand Commando member and injured several civilians. In another attack on a loyalist bar, they killed Ulster Defence Association member Harry Ward in the Diamond Jubilee bar on the Shankill Road, and on 31 December 1991 killed two more Protestant civilians in a gun attack on a public house in the Village area of Belfast called the Donegal Arms. On 5 May 1992, they killed 66-year-old Protestant civilian William Sergeant.

IPLO internal feud

The IPLO was accused by other Republicans of becoming involved in the illegal drug trade, especially in ecstasy. Some of its Belfast members were also accused of the prolonged gang rape of a North Down woman in Divis Flats in 1990. Many of its recruits had fallen out of favour with the IRA and the portents for its future were not good. Sammy Ward, a mid-level IPLO member, broke away from the main body of the organisation with a few supporters when the IPLO were severely depleted and weak in Belfast. His faction attacked the rest of the IPLO, culminating in the killing of Jimmy Brown. A full-scale feud followed between two factions terming themselves "Army Council" (previously led by Jimmy Brown) and "Belfast Brigade" (led by Ward), which led to the 3000th killing of the Troubles, Hugh McKibben, a 21-year-old "Army Council" man. Brown had been the previous victim when he was shot dead in West Belfast on 18 August 1992. This feud was described by the IPLO's critics as a lethal squabble over money and drugs.

Operation

The Provisional IRA were on good terms with IPLO leader Jimmy Brown, which was the only thing that stopped the IRA from moving against that organisation sooner. Once he was killed, and Sammy Ward took over as IPLO Belfast Brigade leader, the IRA decided to launch a huge operation to take out Ward and the IPLO as an organisation.

The IRA, embarrassed by the actions of the Belfast Brigade of the IPLO, decided to eliminate them. Launching its operation on 31 October 1992, the IRA shot dead Ward in the Short Strand. At the same time there were raids on pubs and clubs across west Belfast, where several IPLO members were kneecapped. Many other IPLO members were dragged from their homes, including in the Divis Flats, where 20 IRA men marched across the balconies and told IPLO men to leave the country.

The sheer size and scale of the IRA operation surprised both IPLO factions. The security forces didn't believe that the IRA would be capable of such a large and sophisticated purge that wiped out an enemy in the space of hours without suffering one death or injury themselves. On 2 November 1992 the second-in-command of the IPLO Belfast Brigade formally surrendered to the Provisional IRA Belfast Brigade adjutant, which brought an end to the group in Belfast.

Outside Belfast, the IRA did not attack any IPLO units and issued statements absolving those in Derry, Newry and Armagh from any involvement in the drugs trade. In Dublin, the IRA reprieved the IPLO Chief of Staff in return for his surrendering a small cache of arms held in Ballybough. The operation is reputed to have involved 100 IRA members.

Both factions of the IPLO formally surrendered to the IRA's Belfast Brigade leader within a few days of the operation.

Aftermath

The IRA presented the attacks as an operation to wipe out drug dealers from Belfast rather than another of the inter-Republican feuds which had taken place in previous years.

Some IPLO Volunteers rejoined the INLA. One was Crip McWilliams, who shot dead Loyalist Volunteer Force leader Billy Wright inside the Maze Prison in December 1997.

References

Sources

• Holland, Jack; McDonald, Henry (1994-01-01). INLA: Deadly Divisions. Torc. ISBN 189814205X.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
• De Baróid, Ciarán (1990). Ballymurphy and the Irish War. Pluto Press. ISBN 9780745304458.
• Sutton, Malcolm (2017a). "CAIN: Sutton Index of Deaths: 1997-12-17". CAIN Project. Retrieved 17 May 2017.
• Sutton, Malcolm (2017b). "CAIN: Sutton Index of Deaths: 1992". CAIN Project. Retrieved 17 May 2017.
• Sawyer, John Paul (2010-12-08). COMPETITION IN THE MARKET FOR POLITICAL VIOLENCE: NORTHERN IRISH REPUBLICANISM, 1969–1998 (PDF) (PhD thesis). Georgetown University.