The IRAiE came up in a recent thread and got me thinking: How much do we actually know about these guys? What books do they appear in? How active are they?

Badass Irish types with an axe to grind against the B******* who stole their homeland seem to me to be an awesome concept. Why is there not more out there about these guys?

Thorn used to be a member, but there was a bloody parting. He wiped out a great deal of the leadership. There is/was an American chapter called the Knight of the Red Branch, but I think they got taken out as well.

I totally first read that as "British."

It is kind of odd that the board would censor that in one post but not the other.

Actually, I censor myself. Not a fan of swearing.

The problem may be wetware rather than software, in this case.

I forgot FuelDrop was from Australia.

Anyway the Tir Na Nog book seems your best bet even if it is out of date, by like 20 years. Devs that's what's called a hint.

Well, as said above, the Tir na Nog book is two decades out of date. At the time that was written, the IRA were still involved in some serious attacks in Northern Ireland, and painting them as an underdog resistance against the Tir could have gotten the kibosh at the executive level.

For reference, the IRA in the real world are often Catholic and often consider themselves Irish, whereas the loyalist militias - UVF, UDA, etc. - are, often Protestant and usually consider themselves British. The URF and NURM of TnN are descendants of the Protestant loyalist militias, whereas the IRA was absorbed into Liam O'Connor's government apparatus (the Tír Republican Corps) when Tír na nÓg was founded. The closest I can remember to an "Official IRA" was the human-centred leavings from TnN that most people in-universe thought of as useless, but hey, there's no reason they couldn't have rebuilt themselves in the past twenty years. (That's not even counting the fact that in the real world, there have been at least four republican militias that have called themselves some variant of the "IRA", let alone the original IRA that fought for Ireland's independence in the '20s.)

Thorn was involved with the INLA (similar to the IRA in that they're both republican militias), but that was before/around the time Tír na nÓg was formed (2034), if I remember his file right. (Edit: Sorry, should've read Angelone's post more closely.) I think the closest thing to anything specifically pro-Irish are the Knights of the Red Branch, who as far as I can tell, are anti-elf and happen to be based in Ireland. There was also a pub mentioned in the Seattle book that was supposed to be Irish-style, but they made a point of making it "pro-Ireland" and not "pro-Tír na nÓg", including that elves found inside were likely to be violenced.

Edit: No, I don't have a personal stake in the Troubles. If anyone reading this does, my apologies if I've phrased something in an offensive way.

However, the IRA could quite likely still have an axe to grind, because their whole existence was predicated on being the military of the Irish Republic established by the Easter Rising. The governmental structure of the Tir is pretty solidly opposed to their intended goal, which was to uphold the Republic they defended.

I'd rather expect to see things get even more bloody with the establishment of the Church of Ireland and ejection of the Roman Catholic Church from the island, thus making it de-facto Protestant.

Good summary, even got Thorn's chapter.

Everyone stole my answers. Mostly. More info when I can, posting from phone atm but the basics were covered already.

Right, I doubt that any organisation willing to call itself the IRA would need any reason other than "Ireland's been conquered AGAIN" to take up arms. What I wonder about is more how RL events should be reflected in the game (if at all), since TnN was released before several major steps in the peace process. Nowadays the militias spend more time fighting amongst themselves than against each other, as far as I know, with most of the major players being on one form of ceasefire or another - not like the urban warfare nightmare described in TnN's Belfast (even counting making it darker because of the setting).



How well-established do you figure the Church of Ireland is? I was under the impression that the Catholics, despite all their trouble, were still the largest of the Christian denominations in Ireland/Tír na nÓg (if only because not all Protestants are members of the Church of Ireland, assuming it's based on the real one).

All things considered, it's certainly feasible for something like the IRAiE to exist. You'd really just have to replace "British" with "elves" (or "Danaan families" if the member has pointy ears themselves) and you're good to go.

And here I thought it was my own creation.

Thanks! By now, I don't think anyone will be surprised that I can reference one of Crit's pieces when it comes to elves and/or Ireland. >_> (Or at least, he probably isn't.)



Mostly? What'd I miss? I'm just impressed that you used a different group instead of defaulting to the IRA.



I'd be keen to see stories chronicling the history of the IRAiE, a splinter of a splinter of the historic IRA created entirely by you. Seriously, during the Troubles alone there were four different groups with "IRA" in their name, not to mention other republican militias of one stripe or another. I can only imagine how stirred up the pot would've gotten after the elves came in. At this rate we'll have the "Unseelie IRA", "Catholic IRA", and "Round Ears Only IRA" right up there with the Officials and Provos...

Okay, I'm digging though the Timeline now, and it is making a -touch- more sense :

2011

The first of a series of Magical attacks are made on military targets in Ulster, Northern Ireland by the IRA. 75 members of the Parachute Regiment are killed. 44 in Coalisland in February and 31 more in Derry a month later.
On April 14, the IRA attacks and destroys the SAS base in Belfast. Thirteen members of the SAS are killed along with eleven Protestant paramilitary groups used as informal death squads by British intelligence and the military. British Press covers up the assault but the truth is revealed several years later.
In Ireland, western forests begin a rapid and unexplainable period of growth.
In Ireland, the Giant’s Causeway begins to grow larger.
In Ireland, the ancient Slighe roads, peat bogs, and cairne lines begin to re-emerge from the land.

2013

In Ireland, IRA attacks, which have been escalating in Ulster and the British mainland since the destruction of the SAS base, culminate in an attack in Aldershot using elementals.
In Great Britain, the IRA attack in Aldershot leads the government to consider a referendum to determine the fate of Ireland.

2014

The referendum on Northern Ireland is held. By a majority of 78%, the People vote to exclude the province from the United Kingdom. As a result, the House of Commons passes the Act of Dissolution on June 16.
Pope John Paul IV dies in his sleep. He is replaced by Pope John XXV. Despite this change in power, several Irish Catholic bishops who had refused to accept John Paul IV’s denouncement of metahumans, break from the Catholic church and instead go to the Church of Ireland, a small splinter church.
A week after the Act of Dissolution is passed, the governments of the United kingdom and Ireland sign the Treaty of Galway and the United Free Republic of Ireland is formed.

2015

In Ireland, the IRA reopens negotiations with the Dublin government. Although Ireland is now unified, the IRA’s political wing Sinn Fein still wants to further certain policies. This movement is led by Liam O’Connor, commander of the Derry IRA. During these negotiations, O’Connor and a handful of his key advisors and allies who until now has concealed their true identities with magic, are revealed to be a “spike baby” elves. This leads to rumors of an elven conspiracy among the non-elven members of the IRA. As a result a schism occurs and the IRA splits into two factions: The human led Official IRA, and Liam O’Connor’s primarily elven Provisional IRA. The Official IRA breaks off negotiations with the Irish government. The Provisional IRA strikes a deal with the Dublin government that incorporates the IRA into the security apparatus of the state. In return for IRA help the Fianna Fail government agrees to initiate strict environmental protection laws, metahuman equality legislation, and government subsidized hermetic study programs.
In Ireland, the Catholic church begins to lose power when people abandon it for the more moderate Church of Ireland.
In Ireland, a census is taken revealing that only the province of Ulster has a recognizable population of non-Catholics. Each of the other great provinces of Leinster, Munster, and Connaught have Catholic populations as high as 90%.
In Ireland, the Lough Key forest shows an unnatural growth rate of 40%. This growth lasts for another four years.

2020

In Ireland, elvish children are reportedly being born of 41% of all registered births.

2024

Pope John XXV, the Roman Catholic pontiff, issues his historic encyclical, In Imago Dei (”In the Image of God”). In this document, the Pope sets forth the following as official church doctrine: 1) Metahumans are possessed of souls and capable of salvation. Discrimination against Metahumans is not Christian. 2) Magical abilities are not, by nature, evil. Rather, like any other human ability, they may be used for good or evil ends. 3) Spirits are living manifestations of nature. Thus, conjuring is not in itself evil. This encyclical however, is unable to prevent the virtual disappearance of Catholic influence in Ireland.

2034

On December 11, Irish President McCarthy turns to Liam O’Connor and asks him to impose a state of emergency while the legislature and other influential governmental officials initiate future constitutional changes. Within weeks O’Connor has passed through massive changes, including cutting the power of the Dail and increasing that of the largely elvish Senate. Local governmental powers are also cut.
On Christmas, Irish politician Seamus O’Kennedy, an associate of Liam O’Connor, makes a nationwide broadcast announcing further governmental changes and the birth of a new nation: Tir na nOg.

2035

In Tir na nOg, acts of Constitution vest large amounts of power into the Senate.
In Tir na nOg, the Danaan family creates the province of Meath in order to define on paper the heart of the nation.

2036
In Tir na nOg, an Establishment Act is passed placing the Church of Ireland higher in importance than the Catholic church.

2041

Tir na nOg President Liam O’Connor marries Lady Brane Deigh. He then secures her position as Prionsa within the Court of Stewards.

2042

In March, Tir na nOg State President Liam O’Connor stages his own election as High Steward.

2043

In May, Tir na nOg State President Liam O’Connor disappears.
In Tir na nOg, Lady Brane Deigh proclaims herself Rian, or “Queen” of the Seelie Court, a non-legislative body independent of the Court of Stewards.

2049

In Tir na nOg, another Establishment act is passed placing the Church of Ireland as the official church of the nation as well as implicitly excluding the Catholic church.

Most relevant to this, emphasis mine:



The Provos are the ones who later became the TRC, by my reading. I'd imagine that CanRay's IRAiE are descendants of the Official IRA. (Also, any IRA faction usually just describes itself as "the IRA" anyway, rather than adding qualifiers.)

As for religion, well, in the modern day the Catholic Church makes up something like 90% of Christians in the Republic and 40% in the North, where it's still the single largest faction. By contrast, the Church of Ireland (which is Anglican) makes up 2% of Christians in the Republic as of 2011 and 15% in the North in 2001. I definitely buy into the idea of the Catholic Church as an organisation not wielding the power it once did, but to say it's diminished to the point that the Church of Ireland has surpassed the Catholics is a bit of a stretch for me personally.

Do note that as presented in that timeline, the Church of Ireland has nothing to do with the real Church of Ireland, and is instead a Catholic splinter group that had serious disagreements with and extremely anti-Awakening pope.

On re-reading, you're right, my mistake. The idea of Ireland becoming "Protestant" makes a lot more sense in that context, although I'd think it would've come across more like the older schisms where each faction declared themselves the "true" Catholics and excommunicated the other. I guess that would've made it a lot more confusing for the reader, though.

Did the sabotage of the Catholic Church ever come out to the public in Ireland Tír na nÓg? I imagine that would be a reason to get people stirred up, especially with a Pope more accepting of metahumanity and the idea of the Danaan families actually "endorsing" the Church of Ireland. Keep that up long enough, have some of them flee the country to avoid the oppressive security from the TRC, and... that sounds an awful lot like an exiled IRA to me.

(CanRay, seriously, if you want me to stop hijacking your idea just tell me.)

Who also, for some reason, refused to heal the schism when the new Pope reversed the Church's policy on metahumans and magic. I had a bit of a hard time swallowing that part. especially since it was only a few years apart. People don't change that easily.

It depends on how you try and sell it to them, I suppose. People are notoriously fickle about some things, and it's often about how the change is packaged.

The Tir na nOg sourcebook was published in 1993 (though the authors already had drafted a part of the timeline for the London sourcebook published in 1991). So that was before the ceasefires of 1994 and the beginning of the peace process.

The second Warrington bombing of March 20, 1993, possibly did not happen in Shadowrun timeline. It was a turning point, as with the killing of two children, the IRA war effort then lost a lot of the popular support in both Ireland and Northern Ireland (best musically described as the end of "Bloody Sunday" era and beginning of the "Zombie" era), and it probably played a key role in the Irish government decision to extend counter-terrorist cooperation with the British, and the IRA accepting the idea of a ceasefire.

Besides which, it seems like the writers promptly ignored any references to the Church of Ireland in later books (Shadows of Europe comes to mind); it's always about the shadow war between the Danaan families and the Sylvestrines instead. Even TnN had a couple of throwaway references to Catholicism being strong in the countryside, which is supposedly how the Sylvestrines keep their foothold. I find it a lot easier to believe that there are a lot of not-officially-Catholics left out there, than to try to reconcile the idea that the Church practically fell apart, was absorbed by the Church of Ireland, and then managed to get the Sylvestrines settled so deeply despite people going "boo, Catholics".

Of course, the militias also had heavy presences in the rural communities. The South Armagh Brigade practically ran their part of the North at a few points during the Troubles.