Hmmm…but the IRA were infiltrated from the beginning of the troubles, and certainly by the early 70’s. They effectively became tools of the destruction of their own objectives. They are far from being same people or stock that existed in 1916 to 2023. They were not socialist or Marxist but Nationalist. The IRA Official and Provisional from the 1970s onwards were outright Internationalists and communists and without any other principle than revolution for its own sake. Duplicitous as a result, becoming seen for what they actually were and extremely unpopular once the Good Friday Agreement settled in.
You just need to see the causes and policies undertaken, and their 18- degree turns when they sensed eventually the tide turn on those issues, e.g illegal immigration and their defence nay promotion of same, until very recently. They have started to attack the Government (easy because it’s abysmal)record on that. Yet two years were pushing for more immigration and indeed naturalisation. They have rounded on the response by the government to ape this policy in order to neutralise SF support. A trap which the idiots walked right into.
As it stands to day SF are polling 41% to 43 % depending on which poll you read. Note this is also the same level of support that centre right and nationalist parties now enjoy across the EU. The only reason SF have made this change is purely power related nothing else, and will drop it as soon as they would gain executive governmental postions.
So in effect there is no IRA. There are some lookalikes which are tiny and enjoy little to no support, because everyone realises that regardless of the brand of "new IRA it is likely either is wholly infiltrated or indeed a counterintelligence operation (of which the accents and articulation in pronouncements is the very first giveaway) could have been RTE trained as presenters
Ridiculous.