Difference between revisions of "Noraid"

Revision as of 16:47, June 29, 2007

Noraid, also known as the Irish Northern Aid committee, was created in 1969 to raise funds for the Nationalist community in Northern Ireland after the start of the Troubles. According to the organization, it is a non-profit with the mission of promoting a United Ireland, achieved by peaceful means, in accordance with the 1916 proclamation of an Irish Republic. Noraid states that it provides support for Irish political prisoners and their families, and highlights "the colonial and sectarian nature of partition and British misrule" as the primary reasons for military and political conflict in Northern Ireland since 1969^[1].

Noraid has in the past been involved in smuggling arms and raising money for the Catholic terrorist IRA This was known to both the British and American governments^[2], and its leaders were barred from the United Kingdom during the Troubles. In 1981, the U.S. government won a court case which resulted in Noraid being forced to register the IRA as its "foreign principal." With the advent of the Irish peace process in the 1990s, and particularly the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, Noraid has been eclipsed in Irish republican circles by Friends of Sinn Fein, a similar organization founded by American businessmen whose charter ensures that the funds it raises can only be used for political activity^[3].

References

1. ↑ http://www.inac.org/mission
2. ↑ http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/02/AR2005080201943.html http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/1563119.stm
3. ↑ Moloney, E. (2002). A Secret History of the IRA. New York: WW Norton & Company