The 1960s opened with Irish republicanism in a period of reflection and reorganisation following the failure of the Border Campaign. The IRA’s Operation Harvest, launched in 1956, had been called off in 1962 with little to show for six years of activity — met with public indifference in the South and effective internment on both sides of the border.
The movement that emerged from that experience was searching for a new direction, and the influence of figures such as Cathal Goulding pushed it increasingly toward a leftist, political analysis that prioritised agitation around social and economic issues over the traditional physical-force approach. For much of the decade the republican movement engaged with housing campaigns, trade union activity, and the emerging politics of the civil rights movement — a significant departure from its historic preoccupations. Yet beneath the surface the northern state was moving toward crisis.
The civil rights movement that gathered momentum from 1967 onward exposed the structural discrimination at the heart of the Stormont regime, and the loyalist and state response to peaceful protest revealed how little had changed since partition. By August 1969, with nationalist areas of Belfast and Derry under attack and the movement unable to defend the communities it claimed to represent, the contradictions within republicanism could no longer be contained. The decade ends on the cusp of a split that would define the movement — and Irish history — for a generation.
1960
The IRA’s Border Campaign continues but with dwindling support and little prospect of success. Internment on both sides of the border has badly damaged the movement’s capacity, and public opinion in the South shows scant sympathy for renewed armed activity. Within the organisation, quiet debates begin about the direction republicanism must take if it is to remain a relevant political force.
1961
The general election in the South returns Fianna Fáil to power and underlines the marginalisation of republican politics within the twenty-six counties. The Border Campaign is visibly failing, and the IRA leadership begins the process of reassessment that will shape the movement for the rest of the decade. The influence of left-wing politics within the organisation begins to grow.
1962
The IRA formally calls off Operation Harvest in February, acknowledging its failure and citing the lack of support from the Irish people. The statement is a moment of painful honesty for the movement, and the years that follow are ones of internal debate about whether the traditional republican approach — physical force directed at partition — remains viable or must give way to a broader political strategy.
1963
Cathal Goulding becomes Chief of Staff and begins steering the movement in a markedly different direction, toward political education, social agitation, and engagement with left-wing and trade union politics. For traditionalists within the movement the new departure is unsettling, but the political approach gains traction among a generation shaped more by economic inequality than by the inherited pieties of the republican tradition.
1964
The tricolour dispute in Belfast — sparked by the display of an Irish flag in the Sinn Féin election office on the Falls Road and its removal by the RUC under Unionist pressure — produces rioting and briefly focuses attention on the sectarian character of the northern state. It is a reminder, for those who needed one, that partition and its consequences have not been dissolved by a decade of quiet.
1965
Taoiseach Seán Lemass meets Stormont Prime Minister Terence O’Neill — the first such meeting since partition — in a gesture of cross-border rapprochement that generates both cautious optimism and republican suspicion. For the movement, engagement between the two states on economic terms without any progress on the national question represents accommodation with partition rather than a challenge to it.
 The Story Of Kevin Barry (1965) |  Anti Stormont election leaflet (1965) |  Sinn Féin Attitude to Parliaments (1965) |
1966
The fiftieth anniversary of the Easter Rising prompts nationwide commemoration and a renewed public engagement with the republican tradition. The Ulster Volunteer Force emerges in the North, killing Catholics in anticipation of a republican threat that does not yet exist. The gulf between the movement’s increasingly political orientation and the realities of life for northern nationalists begins to widen.
1967
The Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association is founded, drawing together a broad coalition demanding an end to discrimination in housing, employment, and electoral practice. Republicans are involved in its formation but the movement is one of several currents within it. The campaign that follows speaks the language of civil rights rather than republicanism, but the injustices it targets are inseparable from the structures of the partitioned state.
1968
Civil rights marches attract both growing public support and violent responses from loyalists and the RUC. The events at Burntollet Bridge and the batoning of marchers in Derry are seen across the world, stripping away whatever remained of the Stormont regime’s democratic pretensions. The northern state is visibly struggling to contain a challenge it does not know how to answer peacefully.
1969
The year brings the crisis to a head. Escalating violence, the burning of nationalist streets in Belfast, and the deployment of British troops lay bare the inability of the existing republican leadership to defend northern communities. The failure provokes fury within the movement and accelerates the split that has been developing for years — a division between those who wish to pursue the political path and those who believe that the events of August have made the case for a return to physical force beyond argument.
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