IRA Weapons

An historical retrospective http://oglaighnaheireann.org

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Óglaigh na hÉireann founded 105 years ago today at a public meeting at the Rotunda hospital’s large concert hall (present-day Gate Theatre).

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Asymmetric warfare. Small children harass a sixer (Alvis Saracen armoured personnel carrier). 1970’s, Belfast, two blocks over from Falls road and one block from Dunville park on Grosvenor street.

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“Paxo knocks the stuffing out of the competition.” Paxo was/is a home made plastic explosive consisting of parrafin wax and potassium chlorate. It was used by the IRA occasionally up the 1970’s, and has more recently been used in central Asia. Its name, besides being the name of a brand of stuffing, is a telescoping of “parrafin explosive”, and a play on the Latin word Pax, meaning peace.

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The Strela surface to air missile (also known by its NATO reporting name of SA 7 “Grail” and misnamed “SAM 7” by the 1990’s BBC), shown with its launcher, was made in Russia and widely exported. It is made to shoot down helicopters, or fixed wing aircraft that are relatively near the ground. The provisional IRA got many of them from Libya in the 1980’s. A few of them were decommissioned in the 2000’s. In 1991, there was a suspected use of this missile system against a British helicopter in Co. Fermanagh.

To operate it, the rear and then front caps are removed from the tube, and the gas bottle is pumped to make the molten-salt battery work. The weapon is aimed at a heat-generating target, and when the guidance system has locked on, the operator pulls the trigger switch.

The missile has a limited ability to turn in midair, so practically speaking the operator should be positioned so that they can be behind the aircraft as it recedes into the distance; they should also aim slightly in front of the aircraft, to better approximate where it will be when the missile arrives.

When the missile strikes or grazes a target, or a few seconds after fuel runs out, the missile explodes with a very hot flame and some shrapnel.

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Provisional IRA in Belfast 1980’s

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Some basic gun anatomy and Irish gun vocabulary

Raidhfil– rifle

Béal–muzzle; the opening at the front of the barrel that the bullet comes out of Cró– bore; the hollow space in the barrel

Eitrí– rifling; spiraling channels inside the barrel thay spin the bullet. Ceap polaiméir– polymer stock Ceap adhmad– wooden stock

Bun– butt, the back end of the weapon.

Dorn– literally means fist, the pistol grip in this case.

Treoracha– sights

Treoir-eang– sight notch

Treoirbharra– sight post

Piléarlann– magazine (sometimes informally called a clip); this part holds rounds and feeds them to the weapon

Gléas béil– muzzle device, any accessory that fits on the muzzle. There are several kinds, this one is meant to lessen the flash and jump from the muzzle when firing.

Garda bairille– barrel guard

Bua– [i don’t have a word for this in English]. This is the innate virtue of the weapon, its magic, the victory that is held as potential within a weapon.

Armlón– ammunition

Urchar– a round of ammunition

Cartús– cartridge

Piléar– bullet, the part of the round that comes out when it is fired

Casúr– hammer, striker. The black rifle also has a hammer, but it is internal.

Glas– lock. The mechanical mechanism that fires the gun

Glas cloch-tine– firelock

Craos– breech

Púdar– powder

Lodáil– load

Cocáil– cock

Folmhaigh– unload

Aimsigh– aim

Lámhaigh– shoot

Lámhach gunnaí– gunfire

Fraslámhaigh– volley

Mionarm– small arms (not cannons)

Gunnaí mór– artillery (cannons)

Raon lámhaigh– firing range

Rata lámhaigh– rate of fire

Cíor lámhaigh– firing position

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Teach sábháilte safe house

Innealtóir na pleascach explosives engineer

Prímeálach primer (a small but sensitive explosive charge that sets off the main explosion)

Cásáil casing

Cábla adhainte command wire

Lánán pleascach explosive charge (load of explosive substance(s) inside the casing

Meaisín blosctha blasting machine (sends electric charge down the command wire to the primer)

Cadhnra battery

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Edged weapons

i did one of these for guns and one for explosives, so here is one for edged weapons.

faobhar– edged weapon (faobhras is edged weaponry collectively)

claidheamh/claíomh– sword. These two spellings are spoken the same way; the first is the spelling i grew up with, the second is the modern standard way of spelling it.

dorn– the word for fist, which here means handle.

cros– the cross piece of the sword dornchlúid– handguard; this may be a crossguard as pictured, or a basket-style handguard, or some brass knuckles attached to the handle, or whatever.

lann– the blade part of the weapon

béal– the cutting edge of the weapon (actually the word for mouth, because cutting is how swords communicate)

bos– the flat of the blade dias– the point

úll– the pommel, a round weighted piece at the bottom of the handle. úll is the irish word for apple, pommel is the norman french for (small) apple.

luiseag– the metal part of the blade that extends through the handle and gives the handle something to attach to.

scian– knife cos– handle of a knife. ‘dorn’ also works for big knives. cúl (scine)– tail (of the knife) the back end of the knife. sáil– the bottom of the knife handle

píce– pike. crann– the shaft of a spear or pike or other edged longarm rinn– the point or head

sáfach– battle axe tua– hatchet. back when hatchets were a more standard weapon people also used the word tál, but these days that normally means a type of wood carving tool.

rop– stab slais– slash láimhsigh– wield

faobharchleas– swordplay

beatha le faobhar, bás le faobhar– life by the blade, death by the blade.

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Pipe bombs usually consist of a pipe with a cap screwed to each end, some kind of explosive filling (the charge) and some way to set it off (the fuze).

electrical fuses are best for most things, but if for instance someone wanted something to explode mid-air, they could make a fireworks type fuse by soaking cotton twine in collodion (the green liquid) and then letting it dry, then coating it with wax. And this could be threaded through a hole in one of the caps on the pipe, and held in place with a bit of wax. The length of the fuse determines how long from the time it’s lit until it reaches the charge.

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No movement without friction, no friction without heat.

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Asymmetric warfare. Small children harass a sixer (Alvis Saracen armoured personnel carrier). 1970’s, Belfast, two blocks over from Falls road and one block from Dunville park on Grosvenor street.

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In the Rúraíocht, the epic tales of ancient Northern Ireland, the boys’ troop had to defend their homeland when the warriors were incapacitated. True to their legacy, these 1970’s belfast children take on a Saracen armoured vehicle. Falls area, mid-70’s.

A mother pushes a pram through streets littered with “Irish Confetti” that was rained down on an armoured patrol. Building at left was destroyed by fire, then bricked up to keep it from being used as a place of ambush. The Markets, mid-70’s. Photos by Jill Uris

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Irlanda del Nord

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Derry protestor Paddy Coyle holding a petrol bomb. Bogside, Derry, August 1969.

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The simplest sort of petrol bomb is just a bottle full of fuel with a rag or paper for a wick. You light it and throw it, the bottle breaks, the splash of fuel bursts into a fireball, and then the rest of the fuel burns, possibly catching other stuff on fire. This most basic design is incredibly cheap and easy to make, and so has been very popular with protestors and guerillas for generations.

Using a wick that has been soaked in alcohol instead of fuel oil or petrol has the advantage of not leaving a conspicuous trail of smoke back to your position, which may be helpful to someone throwing the device from a place of concealment. By the same token, in daylight it can be hard to tell if an alcohol wick is actually lit, since the flame is nearly colorless.

Plugging the wick into place with a wine cork or similar stopper ensures that the wick doesnt fall out, minimizes spilling of fuel as the device travels through the air, and seems to give a more dramatic splash/fireball on impact.

Making the fuel thicker keeps the fireball and subsequent flame more concentrated (because the fuel doesnt spread out as much) and consequently hotter. Motor oil, detergent such as fairy liquid, or molasses have all been used for this purpose.

Suspending bits of flammable metal, such as magnesium or aluminum shavings or powder, in the fuel can also allow much higher temperatures to be reached.

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A good stout stick is among the oldest and most versatile of skirmishing weapons. These ICA men were trained for a sort of counter-crowd-control, to protect demonstrators from the police.

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Edged weapons

i did one of these for guns and one for explosives, so here is one for edged weapons.

faobhar– edged weapon (faobhras is edged weaponry collectively)

claidheamh/claíomh– sword. These two spellings are spoken the same way; the first is the spelling i grew up with, the second is the modern standard way of spelling it.

dorn– the word for fist, which here means handle.

cros– the cross piece of the sword dornchlúid– handguard; this may be a crossguard as pictured, or a basket-style handguard, or some brass knuckles attached to the handle, or whatever.

lann– the blade part of the weapon

béal– the cutting edge of the weapon (actually the word for mouth, because cutting is how swords communicate)

bos– the flat of the blade dias– the point

úll– the pommel, a round weighted piece at the bottom of the handle. úll is the irish word for apple, pommel is the norman french for (small) apple.

luiseag– the metal part of the blade that extends through the handle and gives the handle something to attach to.

scian– knife cos– handle of a knife. ‘dorn’ also works for big knives. cúl (scine)– tail (of the knife) the back end of the knife. sáil– the bottom of the knife handle

píce– pike. crann– the shaft of a spear or pike or other edged longarm rinn– the point or head

sáfach– battle axe tua– hatchet. back when hatchets were a more standard weapon people also used the word tál, but these days that normally means a type of wood carving tool.

rop– stab slais– slash láimhsigh– wield

faobharchleas– swordplay

beatha le faobhar, bás le faobhar– life by the blade, death by the blade.

[iraweapons]

Teach sábháilte safe house

Innealtóir na pleascach explosives engineer

Prímeálach primer (a small but sensitive explosive charge that sets off the main explosion)

Cásáil casing

Cábla adhainte command wire

Lánán pleascach explosive charge (load of explosive substance(s) inside the casing

Meaisín blosctha blasting machine (sends electric charge down the command wire to the primer)

Cadhnra battery