An active service unit (ASU; ) was a

Provisional Irish Republican Army The Irish Republican Army (IRA; ), also known as the Provisional Irish Republican Army, and informally as the Provos, was an Irish republican paramilitary organisation that sought to end British rule in Northern Ireland, facilitate Irish reuni ...

(IRA) cell of four to ten members, tasked with carrying out armed attacks. In 2002, the IRA had about 1,000 active members of which about 300 were in active service units. The name “Active Service Unit” dates from the War of Independence as the official army name of the “Flying Columns” to distinguish between Volunteers who acted as support troops versus those “on the run” and actively involved in military attacks. In 1977, the IRA moved away from the larger conventional military organisational principle owing to its perceived security vulnerability. In place of the

battalion A battalion is a military unit, typically consisting of 300 to 1,200 soldiers commanded by a lieutenant colonel, and subdivided into a number of companies (usually each commanded by a major or a captain). In some countries, battalions are ...

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. 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 Quartermaster is a military term, the meaning of which depends on the country and service. In land armies, a quartermaster is generally a relatively senior soldier who supervises stores or barracks and distributes supplies and provisions. In ...

under the direct control of the IRA leadership. 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. The exception to this reorganisation was the

South Armagh Brigade The South Armagh Brigade of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) operated during the Troubles in south County Armagh. It was organised into two battalions, one around Jonesborough and another around Crossmaglen. By the 1990s, the Sout ...

which retained its traditional hierarchy and battalion structure and used relatively large numbers of volunteers in its actions. Some operations, like the

attack on Cloghogue checkpoint The attack on Cloghoge checkpoint was an unconventional railway bomb attack carried out on 1 May 1992 by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) against a British Army permanent vehicle checkpoint, manned at the time by members of the Roya ...

or the South Armagh sniper squads, involved as many as 20 volunteers, most of them in supporting roles. The smaller Republican paramilitary organisation the INLA also used the term "active service unit, as did the Loyalist paramilitary groups the

Ulster Volunteer Force The Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) is an Ulster loyalism, Ulster loyalist paramilitary group. Formed in 1965, it first emerged in 1966. Its first leader was Gusty Spence, a former British Army soldier from Northern Ireland. The group undertook T ...

and

Ulster Defence Association The Ulster Defence Association (UDA) is an Ulster loyalist paramilitary group in Northern Ireland. It was formed in September 1971 as an umbrella group for various loyalist groups and undertook an armed campaign of almost 24 years as one of ...

References

Bibliography

* O'Hearn, Denis. ''Bobby Sands: Nothing but an Unfinished Song'', Pluto, * Bell, J. Bowyer. ''The Secret Army - The IRA'', 1997 3rd Edition, * Moloney Ed, ''The Secret History of the IRA'', Penguin, London 2002, * O'Brien. Brendan, ''The Long War - The IRA and Sinn Féin''. O'Brien Press, Dublin 1995,
ASUs in the Irish War of Independence
{{PIRA Active service unit Guerrilla warfare

See also

References

Bibliography