Saor Uladh (; Irish for "Free Ulster") was a short-lived

Irish republican Irish republicanism () is the political movement for an Irish republic, void of any British rule. Throughout its centuries of existence, it has encompassed various tactics and identities, simultaneously elective and militant and has been both w ...

paramilitary organisation in

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in the 1950s. Feeney (2002), p. 203. Seen as a splinter group of the

Irish Republican Army The Irish Republican Army (IRA) is a name used by various Resistance movement, resistance organisations in Ireland throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. Organisations by this name have been dominantly Catholic and dedicated to anti-imperiali ...

, it was formed in

County Tyrone County Tyrone (; ) is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the thirty-two traditional counties of Ireland. Its county town is Omagh. Adjoined to the south-west shore of Lough Neagh, the cou ...

by Liam Kelly and Phil O'Donnell in 1953. Kelly had been expelled from the IRA in October 1951 for carrying out an unauthorised raid in

Derry Derry, officially Londonderry, is the second-largest City status in the United Kingdom, city in Northern Ireland, and the fifth-largest on the island of Ireland. Located in County Londonderry, the city now covers both banks of the River Fo ...

, and took some of his colleagues with him into the new organisation. Hanley and Miller (2009), p. 11. The new group carried out armed robberies. In 1954, a political wing, Fianna Uladh, was formed. Kelly was later elected to the Seanad in 1954, due mainly to the efforts of Seán MacBride. Unusually for republican groups at the time, Saor Uladh recognised the legitimacy of the

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and the

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. Saor Uladh were closely associated with the left republican party Clann na Poblachta – then a party in government in the

Republic of Ireland Ireland ( ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 Counties of Ireland, counties of the island of Ireland, with a population of about 5.4 million. ...

, although no formal link was ever established or admitted. The group was armed by contacts Kelly had in the

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, from whom they received not only guns and explosives but also anti-tank weapons. Despite this arsenal, the group confined itself to attacks on barracks and the bombing of bridges and customs posts during its period of activity. Saor Uladh was involved in three high-profile attacks from 1955 to 1957. In 1955, they launched an attack on the

Royal Ulster Constabulary The Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) was the police force in Northern Ireland from 1922 to 2001. It was founded on 1 June 1922 as a successor to the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) Richard Doherty, ''The Thin Green Line – The History of the ...

barracks in Rosslea,

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in which Volunteer Connie Green was fatally injured. On 11 November 1956, Saor Uladh and members of a Dublin IRA splinter group destroyed six customs posts along the border in bomb attacks. In May 1957, the group blew up the Newry Canal lock with

gelignite Gelignite (), also known as blasting gelatin or simply "jelly", is an explosive material consisting of collodion-cotton (a type of nitrocellulose or guncotton) dissolved in either nitroglycerine or nitroglycol and mixed with wood pulp and Potassi ...

that they had stolen. Hanley & Millar (2009), p. 17. Their military campaign saw the destruction of several customs posts and raids on police installations. Saor Uladh had its main presence in County Tyrone and in this area the IRA was forced to tolerate the group's existence due to the popularity of Kelly. At the beginning of the Border Campaign, the group was subsumed back into the IRA. After the attack on the Newry Canal, twelve of the group's members were interned at the Curragh Camp in 1957, where they were ostracised by the IRA internees. During the organisation's brief existence, two of its members were killed. Bowyer Bell (1990), p. 334.

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