Border campaign (Irish Republican Army)

Border campaign; (Operation Harvest)
Date	12 December 1956 – 26 February 1962; (5 years, 2 months and 2 weeks)
Location	Mainly Irish border
Result	British victory IRA campaign fails, hundreds of republicans interned;
Belligerents
Irish Republican Army	United Kingdom British Army; Royal Ulster Constabulary; Ulster Special Constabulary;
Commanders and leaders
IRA Army Council; Seán Cronin; Ruairí Ó Brádaigh	Insp.-Gen. Sir Richard Pim; Insp.-Gen. Sir Albert Kennedy (from 1961)
Strength
~Around 200 Volunteers	Several thousand troops 2,800 12,500+
Casualties and losses
8 IRA men killed, 4 republican civilians killed; Over 400 republicans interned in Northern Ireland, ~150 republicans interned in Republic of Ireland	6 RUC constables killed,; 32 wounded

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.^[1] It was also referred to as the "resistance campaign" by some Irish republican activists.^[2]^[3] The campaign was a military failure, but for some of its members was justified as it kept the IRA engaged for another generation.^[4]

^ Armed Struggle: The History of the IRA by Richard English (ISBN 978-0-19-517753-4), page 73
^ As found in the IRA statement ending the campaign in February 1962, presented in J. Bowyer Bell, The Secret Army, 1979.
^ Similarly, Sean Cronin, IRA Chief of Staff at various points during the campaign, titled his account of the 1956–57 period "Resistance – The story of the struggle in British-Occupied Ireland,"Book reprinted in IRIS – The Republican magazine, issue number 20, summer 2007, ISSN 0790-7869, under the pen-name Joe McGarrity
^ see Tim Pat Coogan, "Jail journal of a 'last hurrah' republican," The Sunday Business Post Online, 13 January 2008

[1] Armed Struggle: The History of the IRA by Richard English (ISBN 978-0-19-517753-4), page 73

[2] As found in the IRA statement ending the campaign in February 1962, presented in J. Bowyer Bell, The Secret Army, 1979.

[3] Similarly, Sean Cronin, IRA Chief of Staff at various points during the campaign, titled his account of the 1956–57 period "Resistance – The story of the struggle in British-Occupied Ireland,"Book reprinted in IRIS – The Republican magazine, issue number 20, summer 2007, ISSN 0790-7869, under the pen-name Joe McGarrity

[4] see Tim Pat Coogan, "Jail journal of a 'last hurrah' republican," The Sunday Business Post Online, 13 January 2008

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