Sammy Ward

{{Short description|Irish republican and IPLO leader}}

{{For|the American R&B singer who recorded for Motown|Singin' Sammy Ward}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}

{{Use Hiberno-English|date=May 2022}}

{{Infobox person

| name = Sammy Ward

| image =

| alt =

| caption =

| birth_name = Samuel Ward

| birth_date = 1963

| birth_place = Short Strand, Belfast, Northern Ireland

| death_date = {{Death date|1992|10|31|df=yes}}

(aged 30)

| death_place = Beechfield Street, Short Strand, Belfast, Northern Ireland

| death_cause = Murder by shooting

| organisation = {{ubl|Irish People's Liberation Organisation|Irish People's Liberation Organisation - Belfast Brigade}}

}}

Samuel Ward (c. 1963 – 31 October 1992) was the leader of the Irish People's Liberation Organisation's Belfast Brigade. The IPLO was formed in 1986 by disaffected and expelled members of the Irish National Liberation Army.{{Cite book |last=Leslie |first=David |title=Lighting Candles: A Paramilitary's War with Death, Drugs and Demons |date=2014-05-15 |publisher=Black & White Publishing |isbn=9781845027940 |quote=While Manny was in jail, the arguing and infighting had come to a head and a core of the INLA, including Gerard Steenson, Manny's good friend Jimmy Brown and Martin 'Rook' O'Prey, had broken away and set up the Irish People's Liberation Organisation. At Brown's behest, a political wing, the Republican Socialist Collective was also formed.}}{{Cite journal |last=van Um |first=Eric |year=2012 |title=Why Militant Groups Fight Each Other: The Role of Support, Political Objectives and Revenge |url=https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/119390/1/diw_econsec0064.pdf |journal=Economics of Security |location=Berlin |issue=64 |issn=1868-0488 |quote=In 1986, fighting between IPLO and INLA started shortly after IPLO had been formed by expelled members as a breakaway faction of the INLA.}} Following its split from and feud with the INLA, the IPLO split into two factions: the 'Army Council' (led by Jimmy Brown) and the 'Belfast Brigade' (led by Ward).{{Cite book |last1=McDonald |first1=Henry |title=I.N.L.A - Deadly Divisions |last2=Holland |first2=Jack |publisher=Poolbeg Press |year=2010 |isbn=978-1-84223-438-9 |pages=424, 426, 429, 430}}

During its Halloween 1992 purge of the IPLO (dubbed the "Night of Long Knives"), the Provisional IRA shot and killed Ward while he was inside the Seán Martin GAA club on Beechfield Street in the Short Strand area of Belfast.{{Cite web |title=CAIN: Sutton Index of Deaths |url=https://cain.ulster.ac.uk/cgi-bin/dyndeaths.pl?querytype=date&day=31&month=10&year=1992 |access-date=2024-05-29 |website=cain.ulster.ac.uk}} Following this large-scale operation by the Provisionals, both factions of the IPLO surrendered and disbanded.{{Cite web |date=2019-11-08 |title=IRA's Night of Long Knives' part in peace process |url=https://www.irishcentral.com/opinion/others/iras-night-long-knives-peace-process |access-date=2024-05-28 |website=IrishCentral.com |language=en}}{{Cite journal |last=Monaghan |first=Rachel |year=2002 |title=The Return of "Captain Moonlight": Informal Justice in Northern Ireland |url=https://pure.coventry.ac.uk/ws/portalfiles/portal/28441825/The_Return_of_Captain_Moonlight_.pdf |journal=Studies in Conflict & Terrorism |volume=25 |issue=1 |pages=41–56 |doi=10.1080/105761002753404140 |quote=... and in October 1992 took action against the Irish People’s Liberation Organisation (IPLO). The IPLO had a history of criminal activities including a gang rape of a woman in the Divis flats complex and involvement in the growing drug trade. The IRA’s action resulted in the execution of one IPLO member and the shooting of a further 20 members with assault rifles in Belfast. The IPLO disbanded shortly after this.}}{{Cite web |last=Holland |first=Jack |date=2011-02-16 |title=A View North Shocking! Paramilitaries running North's rackets |url=https://group.irishecho.com/2011/02/a-view-north-shocking-paramilitaries-running-norths-rackets-2/ |access-date=2024-04-11 |website=Irish Echo |quote=The Irish People’s Liberation Organization, a splinter from the Irish National Liberation Army, under the direction of Jimmy Brown, were the first to commence with the importation of drugs on a sizable scale, mainly ecstasy tablets popular at rave parties in the late 1980s. Brown, who fancied himself as something of an intellectual, justified this by pointing to the guerrillas in Colombia, who finance their war against the state through proceeds from the trade in cocaine. The IPLO was forced to disband by the Provisional IRA in November 1992. But the drug trade goes on, mainly in the hands of elements within the Ulster Defense Association.}}