IRISH REPUBLICAN ARMY UNIFORM BUTTON For Sale
When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
IRISH REPUBLICAN ARMY UNIFORM BUTTON :
$850.00
IRISH REPUBLICAN ARMY UNIFORM BUTTON Two-piece convex brass uniform button, with rim (staff), coat size: 21-22 mm. Front has a lined field and a ring of shamrocks surrounding the raised letters “IRA”. The back of the button has a sturdy shank and the back mark: “EXTRA * QUALITY * ” between dotted lines. The button is in very good condition.To the surprise of quite a few of my readers many of these appearances dated to publications from the mid-1800s whenthe namewas used bythe military wing of theFenian Brotherhood of America, a revolutionary movement founded around1858 in the industrial cities of the north-eastern United States.ThatIrish Republican Army came to global prominence in the 19th century with several attempted invasions of British-administeredCanada between the years 1866and1871. Staged by rival factions of the Fenian organisation the objective of the expeditions wasthe establishment of an “Irish Republic in Exile” on the North America continent by exploiting the simmering post-Civil War tensions between Washington and London (senior members of both the White House and US Congress initially encouraged the Fenian plans). Though the strategy failed the abbreviation“IRA” was soon added to the lexicon of Irish and international politics. Some fiftyyears later when theFenian sister-movementin Ireland, theIrish Republican Brotherhood(IRB), orchestrated an insurrection against British colonial rule in the countryit did so by coalescingseveral existing paramilitary organisationsunder one banner. These were theIrish Volunteers,Irish Citizen ArmyandHibernian Rifleswhich in the Easter Rising of 1916 assumed the collective title of the “Army of the Irish Republic” or, as you may have guessed, the “Irish Republican Army”. The IRA was thus reborn for a new generation and a new century.