Hi TheJuchheis,

I'm reasonably well placed to answer this question having completed a masters degree in Modern History, my final dissertation was a 20,000 word investigative piece on the Provisional IRA/ PIRA (to whom I believe you are referring and not one of the other armed forced Irish Republican groups). The dissertation was largely based upon interviews with current and ex members of the IRA (of various factions) who talked to me about why they joined, training, armaments, how operations were conducted and finally their time in prison/ how they felt about the Peace Process. There are also a number of books which may be of use should you want more detailed information. I will reference some of these throughout my answer. Also apologies for typos and indeed the formatting of this answer - I've written it at work and quite a lot of it is from memory.

I am unsure of the depth of your own knowledge of the troubles or indeed of the variety of armed groupings that were involved so I’ve attempted to provide context where relevant.

The PIRA had a number of sources for weaponry that fluctuated throughout the period known as the Troubles (please note that whilst the PIRA has signed a cease fire various splinter groups remain at War). The PIRA was formed in 1969 following a meeting between some senior members of the Official IRA and various persons involved with community defence organisations in Belfast following the Belfast Pogroms in August of that year. The PIRA was formed due to a perceived lack of support from the Dublin based Official IRA leadership which had decided to try and move away from armed force Republicanism following the failure of Operation Harvest in the 1950’s (see The IRA by Tim Pat Coogan and The Lost Revolution: The Story of the Official IRA and the Workers' Party by Brian Hanley).

Due to this change in strategy not much attempt had been made to procure weapons beyond what was already in stock (Bolt action rifles such as WW1 era Lee Enfields, Thomson sub machine guns and M1 Garand rifles were in use). What weapons were available were left over from previous conflicts, imported from America or indeed seized during raids on Police Barracks (note I say Police ‘Barracks’ and not ‘Station’). So when the PIRA was formed not only were they under equipped but they weapons being used were 20 years out of date and lacked parts and ammunition. When the PIRA expanded beyond Belfast into other areas of the North Ireland and became more organised Quartermasters were appointed in each company area to arrange the procurement of weaponry, there was also an engineering section that supposedly worked on the development of new bombs etc. Money was also gathered from the Irish community in America via an organisation named ‘NORAID’ which bought weapons and tried to send them to Ireland (they helped import some AR-15s). (A Secret History of the IRA, Ed Moloney and IRA, the Bombs and the Bullets: A History of Deadly Ingenuity, A. R. Oppenheimer).

All in all the IRA found it difficult to maintain a consistent a reliable source of armaments due to the efforts of the British Security Forces and their allies. It was a large game of cat and mouse. A major breakthrough occurred when Colonel Gadaffi agreed to ship a large quantity of Assault rifles, explosives and ammunition to Northern Ireland. This occurred sporadically between 1972 and the late 1980’s and left the IRA with large stockpiles of a variety of small arms and semtex (used for bomb making). The best source I’ve read on this particular episode was in the book ‘Bandit Country’ by Toby Harnden. In one of the interviews I conducted with a PIRA Company Commander I was advised that a flamethrower had also been acquired and was going to be used to ambush an armoured patrol along the Falls Road in Belfast but was seized during a British Army sweep of the area (apologies that I have no written reference for this).

The PIRA did their best to stay ahead of the technological advantages the British Security Forces enjoyed, supposedly one person in particular had a large part to play in this – see Enemy of the Empire: Life as an International Undercover IRA Activist by Eamon McGuire. Mr McGuire was supposedly involved with a plot involving NASA employees to create a shoulder mounted missile launcher able to destroy British Army Helicopters. However at no point should we consider that the PIRA was able to match the British Army/Security Forces in a conventional sense. The PIRA sought to minimise direct confrontation with the British Security Forces, only engaging the Army/Police when the PIRA had chosen the time and place of the confrontation. Operations were exhaustively planned and would often be cancelled with even the slightest suspicion of surveillance. This resulted in spectacular PIRA successes such as the Warrenpoint attack (see Bandit Country for the best run-down on this) but then massive failures such as the Loughall Ambush (sorry admin but I’m not happy to recommend a specific book on this topic as most of the articles I’ve read on this are one sided and not useful to the academic reader). During the Loughall Ambush the PIRA unit in question started their half of the incident by placing explosives in the scoop of a JCB digger and driving it into the gate of the Police Barracks, an example of how the IRA were adaptable in their efforts to inflict casualties on the British Security Forces.

The best book on the adaptability of the PIRA is IRA, the Bombs and the Bullets: A History of Deadly Ingenuity, A. R. Oppenheimer. I highly recommend this for a more informed and detailed outline of the plethora of different weapons the PIRA utilised. The best book overall on how the PIRA operated is Bandit Country by Toby Harnden. Happy for you to send me any questions – it really is a wide ranging topic!