Loyalism in Development

IRA BORDER CAMPAIGN

The Border Campaign (12 December 1956 – 26 February 1962) was a guerrilla warfare campaign (codenamed Operation Harvest) carried out by the Irish Republican Army (IRA) against targets in Northern Ireland, with the aim of overthrowing British rule there and creating a united Ireland. Popularly referred to as the Border Campaign, it was also referred to as the “Resistance Campaign” by some Irish republican activists. The campaign was a military failure, but for some of its members, the campaign was justified as it had kept the IRA engaged for another generation. While this was the third republican campaign against British rule in Ireland in the 20th century, it was the first where the focus of the whole IRA shifted decisively north. The first campaign took place during the Irish War of Independence and the second was from 1942–1944.

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