active service unit
{{Short description|IRA cell tasked with carrying out attacks}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
File:ProvisionalIRAGalbally.jpg commemoration in Galbally, County Tyrone, 2009, as part of a re-enactment. The weapons are a Beretta AR70, a MAC-10 machine pistol (with sound suppressor) and an AK-47 assault rifle.]]
File:Active service Unite of the Dublin Brigade.jpg
An active service unit (ASU; {{Langx|ga|aonad seirbhíse cogúla}}){{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PvxQAQAAMAAJ&q=%22Aonad+Seirbh%C3%ADse+Cog%C3%BAla%22|title=Achtanna Den Oireachtas a Ritheadh Sa Bhlia[i]n ...: 1937|date=March 8, 1937|publisher=Stationery Office|via=Google Books}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.anphoblacht.com/contents/17229|title=Ní Neart go cur le Chéile | An Phoblacht|website=www.anphoblacht.com}} was a Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) cell of four to ten members, tasked with carrying out armed attacks.{{cite book | last = Leahy |first = Thomas | title = The Intelligence War against the IRA | publisher = Cambridge University Press | year = 2020 | page = 89 | isbn = 978-1108487504}} In 2002, the IRA had about 1,000 active members of which about 300 were in active service units.{{cite book | last = Moloney | first = Ed | author-link = Ed Moloney | title = A Secret History of the IRA | publisher = Penguin Books | year = 2002 | pages = xiv | isbn = 0-14-101041-X}} The concept was first pioneered by Tom McEllistrim and other members of the Irish Republican Army.
History
In 1977, the IRA moved away from the larger conventional military organisational principle owing to its perceived security vulnerability. In place of the battalion structures, a system of two parallel types of unit within an IRA Brigade was introduced. Firstly, the old "company" structures were used to supply auxiliary members for support activities such as intelligence-gathering, acting as lookouts or moving weapons.O'Hearn, page 19
The bulk of attacks from 1977 onwards were the responsibility of a second type of unit, the ASU. To improve security and operational capacity these ASUs were smaller, tight-knit cells, usually consisting of five to eight members, for carrying out armed attacks. The ASU's weapons were controlled by a quartermaster under the direct control of the IRA leadership.Bowyer Bell Page 437 By the late 1980s and early 1990s, it was estimated that the IRA had roughly 300 members in ASUs and approximately 450 serving in supporting roles.O'Brien, p.161
The exception to this reorganisation was the South Armagh Brigade which retained its traditional hierarchy and battalion structure and used relatively large numbers of volunteers in its actions.Moloney, p.377 Some operations, like the attack on Cloghogue checkpoint or the South Armagh sniper squads, involved as many as 20 volunteers, most of them in supporting roles.{{Cite book|title=Bandit Country:The IRA and South Armagh|last=Harnden|first=Toby|publisher=Coronet books|year=2000|isbn=0-340-71737-8|pages=[https://archive.org/details/banditcountry00toby/page/404 404]|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/banditcountry00toby/page/404}}
The smaller Republican paramilitary organisation the INLA also used the term "active service unit,{{Cite web |url=https://cain.ulster.ac.uk/nai/1984/nai_DFA-2014-32-13_1983-05-13.pdf |title=Archived copy |access-date=2020-08-16 |archive-date=2019-02-26 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190226141539/https://cain.ulster.ac.uk/nai/1984/nai_DFA-2014-32-13_1983-05-13.pdf |url-status=bot: unknown }} as did the Loyalist paramilitary groups the Ulster Volunteer Force{{cite web|url=https://cain.ulster.ac.uk/othelem/organ/uvf/uvf030507.htm|title=Statement by the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), (3 May 2007)|work=CAIN|access-date=11 August 2020}} and Ulster Defence Association.{{citation needed|date=July 2021}}
See also
{{Portal|Ireland}}
- Flying Columns, terminology for some types of Irish Volunteers units of circa the 1920s
- Fireteam and Squad, terminology for functional types of modern military units of similar size
References
Bibliography
- O'Hearn, Denis. Bobby Sands: Nothing but an Unfinished Song, Pluto, {{ISBN|0-7453-2572-6}}
- Bell, J. Bowyer. The Secret Army - The IRA, 1997 3rd Edition, {{ISBN|1-85371-813-0}}
- Moloney Ed, The Secret History of the IRA, Penguin, London 2002, {{ISBN|0-14-101041-X}}
- O'Brien. Brendan, The Long War - The IRA and Sinn Féin. O'Brien Press, Dublin 1995, {{ISBN|0-86278-359-3}}
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20160304192747/http://www.bureauofmilitaryhistory.ie/bmhsearch/search.jsp?querystr=Active+Service+Unit ASUs in the Irish War of Independence]
{{PIRA}}