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By the 18th century, stick fighting became increasingly associated with Irish gangs called "factions". [30] Irish faction fights involved large groups engaging in melees at county fairs, weddings, funerals and other gatherings. Historians, such as Carolyn Conley, believe that this possibly reflected a culture of recreational violence.
The Annals of the Four Masters, written in the 17th century, records a number battles as having taken place in prehistoric Ireland. These include: 2530 AM – Battle of Mag Itha, the first recorded battle in Ireland [1] 3304 AM – First Battle of Magh Tuireadh [2] 3330 AM – Second Battle of Magh Tuireadh [2]
The agreement provided for "power-sharing" – the creation of an executive containing both unionists and nationalists; and a "Council of Ireland" – a body made up of ministers from Northern Ireland and the Republic that was designed to encourage cross-border co-operation.
Irish faction fights involved large groups of people who would engage in melees at county fairs, weddings, funerals, or other gatherings. [citation needed] Some historians, as summarised by James S. Donnelly Jr. (1983) in "Irish Peasants: Violence & Political Unrest, 1780") have suggested that faction fighting had class and political overtones.
Laws in both the Republic of Ireland and the UK proscribe (ban) membership of a number of Irish republican and Ulster loyalist groups. Several other smaller paramilitary factions have appeared throughout the Troubles, and some groups have used cover-names to deflect responsibility for attacks.
The Provisional Irish Republican Army (Provisional IRA), officially known as the Irish Republican Army (IRA; Irish: Óglaigh na hÉireann) and informally known as the Provos, was an Irish republican paramilitary force that sought to end British rule in Northern Ireland, facilitate Irish reunification and bring about an independent republic encompassing all of Ireland.
The Official Irish Republican Army or Official IRA (OIRA; Irish: Óglaigh na hÉireann) was an Irish republican paramilitary group whose goal was to remove Northern Ireland from the United Kingdom and create a "workers' republic" encompassing all of Ireland. [2]
The Army Comrades Association (ACA), later the National Guard, then Young Ireland [a] and finally League of Youth, but best known by the nickname the Blueshirts (Irish: Na Léinte Gorma), was a paramilitary organisation in the Irish Free State, founded as the Army Comrades Association in Dublin on 9 February 1932. [7]