Saor Éire (meaning 'Free Ireland'), also known as the Saor Éire Action Group, was an armed Irish republican organisation composed of Trotskyists and ex-IRA members. It took its name from a similar organisation of the 1930s.

History

It was formed in 1967 by ex IRA members who left in protest in the early sixties over lack of military action. its leaders included Peter Graham, Frank Keane (Former Commandant of the Dublin Brigade of the IRA), Liam Walsh, Joe Dillon and Martin Casey and Maureen Keegan of the Young Socialists. It recruited members of the Marxist Irish Workers Group. The group drew ideological inspiration from Trotsky, Che Guevara, and Socialist Irish Republicans from the 1930s such as Michael Price. Deaglán de Bréadún of the Irish Times writes that the group "probably never numbered more than a few dozen activists". Between 1967 and 1970, Saor Éire carried out a number of bank robberies, the proceeds being used to purchase arms. The group provided arms, training and funding to nationalists in Northern Ireland after the outbreak of the Troubles in 1969.

Timeline

Saor Éire was officially disbanded in 1975, although it remains a Proscribed Organisation in the United Kingdom under the Terrorism Act 2000.