from IAIS: IRA DENIES SPLIT 


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IRA DENIES SPLIT
11/13/97 15:14 EST

The IRA said yesterday it remained intact, united and
committed despite "greatly exaggerated" reports of
resignations from the organisation. There were reported to
have been up to 20 defections from the IRA over the peace
process after a secret meeting of the organization in Co
Donegal last month.

And members of the First Battalion, south Armagh, were also
reported to have left the organisation after a meeting with
the IRA leadership last Saturday. An IRA source told the
weekly republican newspaper An Phoblacht that any impact on
the organization of a small number of resignations should be
viewed in the context of years of struggle. The source said
that during a sustained period of struggle it was perhaps
inevitable that individual personnel would change for a
number of reasons at different times.

The source insisted that the IRA remained intact while
expressing regret at the resignations and disappointment
that some of those who left had made their action known
publicly. The IRA spokesperson said they had unwittingly fed
into the agenda of those who wished to split the
organisation and denied that a former chief of staff had
left because he was unhappy with the present strategy.

The IRA said a very small number of people had left the
"army" over a period of a few weeks but they were people who
were closely associated with each other. It also described
as "fanciful" a report that there were mass resignations
from the IRA in south Armagh.

                          *

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news as it happens in Ireland and the North.  Please
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nytire-11.15.97-03:28:18-10825