Provisional Irish Republican Army
The Irish Republican Army (IRA), also known as the Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA), is an Irish republican paramilitary organisation that sought to end British rule in Northern Ireland, facilitate Irish reunification and bring about an independent republic encompassing all of Ireland. It was the most active republican paramilitary group during the Troubles. It saw itself as the military force of an all-island Irish Republic, and as the sole legitimate successor to the original IRA from the Irish War of Independence. It was designated a terrorist organisation in the United Kingdom and an illegal organisation in the Republic of Ireland, both of whose authority it rejected.
The PIRA appears in several Tom Clancy novels including Rainbow Six.
Appearances
Patriot Games
In Patriot Games, former PIRA members joined the ULA, the main antagonist of the novel. PIRA representatives publicly condemned the ULA's attack on the Prince and Princess of Wales, and the baby Prince William, and a member of the organisation met with an operative of the British security services. Senior PIRA members were killed by the ULA in the USA, who had intended to kill Jack Ryan and his family.
Rainbow Six
In 1999, PIRA cell leader Sean Grady was hired by Dimitriy Popov to raid a local hospital near Hereford Base where Sandra O'Toole and Patricia Clark worked in order to distract Rainbow from the pending release of the Shiva virus at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia. The PIRA changed its outlook against drugs significantly, going so far as to demand large quantities of medical-grade cocaine (with a street value of upwards of $15,000,000) as partial payment for the attack.