IRA Discipline Incidents

Request Number: FOI/14740

Category: Legacy - Incidents

Subject: IRA Discipline Incidents

Request and Answer:
Your request for information has now been considered. In respect of Section 1(1)(a) of the Act we can confirm that the Police Service of Northern Ireland does hold information to which your request relates. The decision has been taken to disclose the following.

Request Details
I have found statistics for incidents of tarring and feathering by the Irish Republican Army between 1971 to 1978, which are as follows
IRA Discipline Incidents, 1971-78
1971 \t27
1972 \t28
1973 \t6
1974 \t16
1975 \t22
1976 \t18
1977 \t21
1978 \t6
Source Peter Janke, “Ulster A Decade of Violence.” Conflict Studies no.108, June 1979.

Request 1
I would like to request further information and guidance on where I could find the original data relating to these statistics please. I am interested in the statistics only and do not wish or need to identify any of the perpetrators or victims of these crimes.
 
Request 2
In particular, I am seeking to undertake a gender breakdown of Janke’s statistics to conclude what proportion of these victims were women.
 
Answer
The PSNI cannot confirm the source of the original data relating to the statistics noted in this request. We can however provide the overall number of persons tarred and feathered that were recorded by the PSNI between 1971 and 1978 broken down by gender, which are not specifically attributed to the Irish Republican Army.
 

(1) Does not necessarily only include people who were tarred and feathered.  Person may have had hair shaved off, paint poured over them, or a combination of these things; generally classified under the term ‘tarred and feathered’.
(2) Attribution is not recorded for the above statistics.