IRA Arms

P

Prichard

New member
http://www.abcnews.go.com/sections/world/DailyNews/nireland_arms990716.html

IRA Arms

The Irish Republican Army has a sizeable cache of weapons hidden. But for the Good Friday peace agreement to be fulfilled, the IRA will have to give up its weapons. Following is a breakdown of the estimated numbers of weapons in the IRA arsenal:

RIFLES
AK-47/AKM assault rifles: 550
Armalite rifles: 60
Other rifles: 335


MACHINE GUNS
Soviet-made carriage mounted artillery guns: 18
FN Machine guns: 12
Other machine guns: 43


HANDGUNS
Automatic, including a number of Glock 18Cs: 30
Webley .455-caliber revolvers: 68
Other, including .38-caliber Smith & Wessons: 515

EXPLOSIVES
Hand grenades: 115
Semtex explosive: 2 to 3 tons
Detonators: between 600 and 1,200

MISSLES, ROCKETS, FLAMETHROWERS
SAM 7B missiles: 7
RPG-7 rocket launchers: 11
Rockets for RPG-7: 46
LPO-50 flamethrowers: 6 or 7
_____________________________________________

Glock 18s, I wonder how they managed that one?

Wonder what 'similar' Protestants are packing?
 
Whomever retreived the info for this article must have been stoned. I know that for a fact - Slick Willie negotiated a Northern Ireland peace treaty just a few weeks back - and he worked hard on it... No, there must be some problem with the author....
 
Maybe thats enough. Its sort of like the MX missile concept. Very few missiles, lots of silos, moved around alot so it looks like more = large intimedation factor due to encertanty

Chuck
 
I agree with Jeff. Based upon recent threads, put all the TFL members together and you probably have this beat with your home defense arsenals. ;)
 
I don't have any tolerance for terrorist organizations and the IRA certainly qualifies, though I can sympathize with a desire to live in your own country without British domination, but...I wouldn't give up my guns until I HAD what was promised. I don't trust politicians not to redefine what they meant once you have given up your means to resist. If the plan is so good for the Irish, why be worried if they have guns?

------------------
Dorsai
Personal weapons are what raised mankind out of the mud, and the rifle is the queen of personal weapons. The possession of a good rifle, as well as the skill to use it well, truly makes a man the monarch of all he surveys.
-- Jeff Cooper, The Art of the Rifle
 
These weapon turn ins as a condition to peace remind me of that scene in "The Outlaw Josie Wales" where the holdout Rebel band surrenders their guns for peace, amnesty and a hot meal. Then to everyones surprise (except Clint Eastwood, of course), they get a side order of Yankee lead with that hot meal.
I can't believe for a minute that the IRA is going to turn in their guns. And I can't bring myself to believe that anyone else involved in these negotiations believes it either.
 
I suggest we don't go down the path of discussing the IRA and the rights and the wrongs of it and them refusing to give up their arms.
If you thought I got annoyed before about attacks on the British, well thats nothing compared to what I could say on this. The threads would get very nasty so I suggest we keep discussion on the numbers of guns they have etc and leave the politics to the people in Ireland who know the facts and not us foreigners who hold ill informed opinions.

------------------
New FREE Gun Auctions at http://www.gun-center.com/auctions.html
 
Only 46 RPG rockets?

Shoot, I go through that many every weekend!
Good thing I got the RPG die from Dillan so I can reload that honker!



------------------
Every man Dies.
Not Every Man Truely Lives...
FREEDOM!

RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE
 
Rabbit Assassin,

I agree, that is why I put this in general. I'm just curious to arms used by both sides (excluding the British Army). Though I do believe that Protestant 'groups' have probably received arms/assistance from the British army.
 
Sure the protestant groups may have recieved support from the British army but it would be only been minor in the overall scheme of things and certainly done illegally and not with the approval of the government.
I think out of the two the IRA would be better armed by far. The income they get (a large part of which comes from US citizens) would be much greater than the protestant paramilitary groups which allowed them to purchase this stuff.
Anyway both the the IRA and the various protestant paramilitary groups are low life criminal thugs who generate income from drug dealing and other criminal activities. An army with the support of the people would generate millions of dollars and be able to purchase illegally far more weapons than they have.
Neither groups would give up all their guns anyway, after all criminals never obey the law.
The damage they do with their bombs has much greater impact than their guns ever have. I don't think they have banned fertilizer in Britain yet.

------------------
New FREE Gun Auctions at http://www.gun-center.com/auctions.html
 
Well, when you have two to three tons of Semtex stashed away there's not much need to fool around with fertilizer, now is there?

Based on their tactics to date, as well as most estimates I've seen on the number of IRA hardcore members (members willing to fight and to kill) this number of weapons is more than adequate. I really doubt they could field a battalion of troops.
 
Flame suit on, fire retardents deployed... post away...

What would be the harm of letting the Irish people have their own country? Seems to me the Brits have oppressed everyone in this world at some point during history... I'm glad our "terrorists" (George Washington and crew) had the nerve to fight the Brits off and win us freedom.

I do acknowledge the fact they hurt innocent people instead of the British military and for that I condemn their actions!

[This message has been edited by ProfJava (edited July 18, 1999).]
 
True when it comes to the number of members willing to kill it wouldn't be very many. So that semtex is pretty welll enough for them.
The shooters just in the city(in name only about 60 000 people) where I live would own more guns than them.
The guns the IRA has proves how useless gun laws are.
 
I'm not going to flame but don't compare the situation in Northen Ireland to the US, 90% of the population won't vote for Sinn Feinn and probably 99% condone violence on even British soldiers.
I wish we had some Irish here to comment on it but as I said before it's best to for us prejudiced(a lot against anything to do with Britain)foreigners to stay out of it.
BTW my grandparents were orangemen, of which I'm proud they used to have lodges everywhere in Australia.

------------------
New FREE Gun Auctions at http://www.gun-center.com/auctions.html
 
Now let me get this straight:The brits use guns and violence to subject the irish people.Then the irish get guns and use violence to stalemate the brits.Now the irish are to give their guns to the brits and they will make nice-nice with them-but the brits will still have their guns.Haven't we just gone in a circle back to giving the brits the upper hand?As a canadian I am disgraced by one of our former generals being involved in the disarming process.BTW I do think that both sides-protestants and catholics have more than their share of idiots
 
America was blessed by a group of mainly Englishmen who saw a vision of a country free of kings and lords. If this is offensive to you, rabbit assissin, so be it. As a after thought, the worst thing to happen in the history of the British Isles was their conquest by the NOrmans who brought a feudal slave system to Britain. The Anglo Saxons and Celtic peoples both eventually lost out. THe best and the brightest in the British Isles were always leaving this feudal system as quickly as possible for foreign lands. England is still a feudal state as far as I am concerned,but dont take this as any criticism of the people themselves.
 
I doubt if the IRA is one homogenous group like the media would have us believe. There are splinter groups which won't "play fair" and surrender their firearms. I also heard that the IRA has one or two .50 calibre plus sniping rifles. The threat potential of these behemoths scare the bejesus out of the Brits who must be wary of them.

May peace pay a lengthy visitation upon all those who dwell upon Hibernia.

------------------
Vigilantibus et non dormientibus jura subveniunt
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top