Soldiers of folly - Barry Flynn

In January 1957, the funerals of IRA Volunteers Feargal OHanlon and Sen South saw an outpouring of nationalist grief not witnessed in Ireland for a generation. But how many know about their violent deaths in Fermanagh on New Years Day 1957' The Border Campaign was an ambitious plan to use the tactics of Flying Columns in the War of Independence to wage a guerrilla war, make Northern Ireland ungovernable and force a British withdrawal. It was an abject failure. The IRA received little support from Northern nationalists, while governments north and south introduced internment. Key players were De Valera, Lord Brookeborough, Sen Garland, Daithi OConnell and Ruairi OBradaigh. This account of the campaign, immortalised in Dominic Behans ballad The Patriot Game, outlines the origins, planning and phases of the conflict, and how it was wrapped in outdated notions of republican romanticism. The Chief of Staff, Anthony Magan from Meath, sold the family farm to finance the campaign. Most volunteers were from the south with little knowledge of the North. The IRAs onslaught was considered a minor irritation by the Northern State. At its end, the IRA was regarded as a spent force. After a period of ideological debate, the IRA emerged in a different form in 1970 when the more recent Troubles erupted. The lessons of the 1956 campaign still resonate today for Republicans in Ireland.