IRA - Definition and Overview

IRA is an acronym with various meanings.

There are several paramilitary groups which claim the title 'Irish Republican Army', and advocate an all-island Irish state achieved through force with no ties to the United Kingdom.

• Irish Republican Army (explaining the linked history of movements claiming to be the IRA)
• Provisional Irish Republican Army (sometimes called the PIRA, a republican breakaway group in the 1970s associated with Sinn Féin (this is the dominant IRA)
• Official IRA (Marxist IRA officially on ceasefire since the 1970s. The PIRA above broke from this movement)
• Real Irish Republican Army (a breakaway from the PIRA formed after the 1990s ceasefires)
• Continuity Irish Republican Army (a breakaway from the PIRA formed in 1986)
• Old IRA (The official Army of the Irish Republic (1919-1922). Later IRAs claimed to be this organisation. Most Irish people disagree.)

On a completely different note, there is also:

• The Individual Retirement Account (legal name: Individual Retirement Arrangement) or IRA, a private retirement account in the USA that enjoys certain tax benefits.

There is also:

• Ira (which has a number of alternative meanings)