Active service unit

An active service unit (ASU; Irish: aonad seirbhíse cogúla)^[1][2] was a Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) cell of four to ten members, tasked with carrying out armed attacks.^[3] In 2002, the IRA had about 1,000 active members of which about 300 were in active service units.^[4] The concept was first pioneered by Tom McEllistrim and other members of the Irish Republican Army in Kerry.

Active service unit at a 1981 hunger strikes 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.

Wall plaque in Great Denmark Street, Dublin where the 1919 IRA Active Service Unit of the Dublin Brigade was founded. Every Brigade had^{[citation needed]} an Active Service Unit; these were^{[citation needed]} also called "Flying Columns."

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.^[5]

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.^[6] 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.^[7]

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.^[8] 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.^[9]

The smaller Republican paramilitary organisation the INLA also used the term "active service unit,^[10] as did the Loyalist paramilitary groups the Ulster Volunteer Force^[11] and Ulster Defence Association.^{[citation needed]}

See also

• Ireland portal

• 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

1. "Achtanna Den Oireachtas a Ritheadh Sa Bhlia[i]n ...: 1937". Stationery Office. 8 March 1937 – via Google Books.
2. "Ní Neart go cur le Chéile | An Phoblacht". www.anphoblacht.com.
3. Leahy, Thomas (2020). The Intelligence War against the IRA. Cambridge University Press. p. 89. ISBN 978-1108487504.
4. Moloney, Ed (2002). A Secret History of the IRA. Penguin Books. pp. xiv. ISBN 0-14-101041-X.
5. O'Hearn, page 19
6. Bowyer Bell Page 437
7. O'Brien, p.161
8. Moloney, p.377
9. Harnden, Toby (2000). Bandit Country:The IRA and South Armagh. Coronet books. pp. 404. ISBN 0-340-71737-8.
10. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original on 26 February 2019. Retrieved 16 August 2020.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
11. "Statement by the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), (3 May 2007)". CAIN. Retrieved 11 August 2020.

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
• ASUs in the Irish War of Independence