Night of the Long Knives (1992)

Night of the Long Knives
Part of the Troubles
Date 31 October – 1 November 1992 Location Belfast Result Successful IRA operation. Surrender of all IPLO forces from both factions.
Belligerents
Provisional IRA	Irish People's Liberation Organization
Strength
Up to 100 volunteers	IPLO Belfast Brigade & IPLO GHQ
Casualties and losses
None	IPLOBB 1 killed, about 20 injured. IPLOGHQ about 20 injured

The Night of the Long Knives is the name given to the night of 31 October 1992, when the Provisional IRA launched a large operation to wipe out the Irish People's Liberation Organization, who most republicans felt were becoming an embarrassment to Irish republicanism due to their involvement in drug dealing, criminality and internal feuds.

Background

In 1986, expelled members of the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) and those unhappy within the organization upset with the direction the INLA was going decided to form the Irish People's Liberation Organization (IPLO), along with a small political wing called the Republican Socialist Collective. When the IPLO was formed, its main goals 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 Jimmy Brown, 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 - 1992 it killed 22 people; 6 INLA members, 2 members of the British Security Forces, 2 loyalist paramilitaries, and 12 civlians,

File:Orange cross.jpeg

The IPLO attack on the Orange Cross Social Club, a Protestant bar, killed 1 loyalist paramilitary and injured others.

The IPLO was more sectarian than any other 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 genocide of Catholics. In 1989 during the attack on the Orange Cross Social Club they killed a Red Hand Commando member and injuried several civilians. In another attack on a loyalist bar, they killed Ulster Defence Association member Harrdy Ward in the Diamond Jubilee bar in on the Shankill Road, and on 31 December 1992 killed two more Protestant civilians in a gun attack on a public house in the Village area of Belfast. On 5 May 1992, they killed 66-year-old Protestant civilian William Sergeant.

IPLO internal feud

The IPLO was accused 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 McKibbon, 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 – by far the largest armed paramilitary group in Ireland – decided enough was enough and this was an opportunity to attack and remove the IPLO for good given the IPLO's involvement in the drug trade and other criminality which the Provisionals hated especially drug dealing because it helped to portray Republicans as criminals who were profiting of the misery of their own communities. They mounted a huge operation to wipe out the IPLO. The PIRA launched their well planned operation on the 31 October 1992. IPLO Belfast Brigade leader Sammy Ward was shot dead in the Short Strand, and 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 twenty IRA men marched across the balconies, and told to leave the country, 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 the IPLO units in Derry, Newry and Armagh from any involvement in the drugs trade that was alleged against those in Belfast. In Dublin the IRA reprieved the IPLO Chief of Staff in return for surrendering a small cache of arms held in Ballybough. The operation is reputed to have involved 100 IRA members.

Aftermath

The Operation was aimed mainly at the IPLOBB while IPLOGHQ units in Belfast were received less severe beatings than the IPLOBB volunteers did. The IRA issued an ultimatum to the survivors of both factions to disband their organizations or face death. Both quickly complied, leaving the PIRA as the only Republican paramilitary except for the weakened INLA

Both factions of the Irish People's Liberation Organization formally surrendered to the IRA's Belfast Brigade leader within a few weeks of the operation in November 1992.