[tom8517]

True Grant's. The primary purpose of the northern units prior to 1969 was to act as a sort of home guard to protect against periodic Orange pogroms. The failure of the Army Council to deliver any meaningful protection was one of the principal reasons for the split. I Ran Away was being painted on the walls all over the nationalist areas of the north.

Some southern volunteers did see active service during the troubles, but the main job of the IRA south of the border was maintaining arms dumps and safe houses for volunteers on the run.

During the early '60s the IRA drifted into Marxism. The theory being they could unite the w ok ring classes of both communities in common cause against their capitalist overlords. A rather simplistic approach that centuries of hate would be put aside to march hand in hand into the new Marxist utopia. And then there's the fact that communist atheism was tough sell in 1969, both on the Falls and the Shankhill.