Northern campaign (Irish Republican Army)

Attempts by the IRA to destabilise Northern Ireland between 1942 and 1944

The Northern campaign was a series of attacks by the Irish Republican Army (IRA) Northern Command between September 1942 and December 1944 against the security forces in Northern Ireland. The action taken by the Northern Irish and the Irish governments as a result of these attacks shattered the IRA and resulted in the former being free from IRA activity by the end of World War II. By the end of World War II in 1945, the northern command of the IRA, largely as a result of the stern response from the Irish government, had been reduced to a few wanted men with Northern Ireland entirely free from IRA activity.

Easter Sunday – a heavy gunfight in Belfast left a RUC constable dead, with six IRA members arrested in Cawnpore Street in response. October – An RUC member was killed in an IRA attack on Donegall Pass, RUC station in Belfast.

15 January – IRA northern command commander, Hugh McAteer, along with another IRA member escaped over the wall of Crumlin Road gaol, Belfast. 21 March – 21 IRA prisoners escape from Magilligan prison in Derry. Unknown date – RUC constable shot dead during an attempted robbery at Ross's Mill, Belfast.

11 February – Seamus "Rocky" Burns was mortally wounded during a gun battle with RUC in Derry city. 15 June – Kerins was arrested at 50 Rathmines Road in Dublin. He was tried by military tribunal by the Irish state and found guilty on 9 October 1944 of involvement in the death of detective O'Brien on 9 September 1942, and subsequently hanged on 1 December 1944.