There are many terrorist groups through out the world. There are few, if any however, that are as old as the Irish Republican Army. The IRA is most likely the oldest terrorist organization in the world today. The Irish Republican Army fights for Ireland's independence from the United Kingdom of Great Britain. The history of the Irish Republican Army goes back a very long time
             The organization from which modern Irish republicans trace their origins - the United Irishmen of the 1790s. Inspired by the example of the American War of Independence and by the democratic ideals of the French Revolution, the United Irishmen sought to unite the people of Ireland in a common effort to achieve equality and freedom. Choosing non-violent means to win their aims, the United Irishmen were quickly met with an aggressive response from the British government. It was only then that they exercised their right as Irish people to defend their liberty by the use of arms. It was a pattern that was to be repeated several times in the next century and a half.
             Armed uprisings against British rule took place in 1798, 1803, 1848 and 1867. The 45 years between 1803 and 1848 saw the Irish population mobilized in one of the first mass movements for political reform in the history of Europe. The demand for legislative independence for Ireland was denied by the British government.
             The Great Hunger of 1845-1852 saw a million people starve and a million more emigrate yet this catastrophe befell an unarmed people and there was only sporadic resistance. The ill-fated uprising of 1848 was localized.
             The lessons of this period were not lost on succeeding generations of Irish patriots and the Fenian Movement of the late 1850s and 1860s won widespread support in Ireland and America for its program of armed struggle to achieve an Irish Republic. The uprising of 1867 was crushed and another 49 years were to pass before Irish nationalists attempted an armed resista...