Irish National Liberation Army

The Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) was a socialist paramilitary group that served as the armed wing of the Irish Republican Socialist Party (IRSP). INLA sought to unify Ireland as a socialist republic independent from the United Kingdom. Many of the group's founders were former members of the Official Irish Republican Army (OIRA), one of the two main Catholic paramilitary groups in Northern Ireland seeking Irish independence, who did not support a ceasefire OIRA declared in 1972. INLA targeted mostly British and local security forces, though one of its most famous actions was the December 1997 killing of a Protestant paramilitary leader in prison, and the group also killed a large number of civilians. The group declared a ceasefire in 1998 and formally renounced violence in 2009, saying it could now achieve its goals through peaceful means.