THE Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) was formed in 1975 as the military wing of the Irish Republican Socialist Party (IRSP), quickly establishing a reputation for ruthlessness and ferocity.
Its initial core strength came from disillusioned Official IRA members, which had called a truce in 1972. It also poached some members from the Provisional IRA who were unhappy with the IRA ceasefire of 1975.
Its first violent acts induced the wounding of the then prominent Dublin Official republican Mr Sean Garland, and later of his colleague, Mr Des O'Hagan, and the killing of Mr Billy McMillen, an Official IRA commander, in April 1975.
Since then it has been responsible for the killing of scores of British soldiers, RUC officers, loyalists, civilians, alleged informers within its own organisation and fellow republicans in bloody disputes.
The INLA's main support came from the Lower Falls and Markets areas of Belfast, and from Co Derry, particularly south Derry.
In 1979 it killed Mr Airey Neave, the Conservative spokesman on the North and close friend of Mrs Margaret Thatcher. Three years later it was responsible for the Droppin' Well bomb at Ballykelly, Co Derry, which killed 17 people.
Three of its members died in the 1981 hunger strike. During the H Block protest, the INLA complained that a disproportionate number of its members were being called upon to join the hunger strike.
In 1982 it blew up the radars station at Schull, Co Cork. The same year it failed in a murder attempt on a DUP member, the Rev William Beattie.
Around this time the organisation was taken over by Dominic McGlinchey. McGlinchey was eventually caught in the Republic. He was jailed after an unsuccessful attempt to extradite him to Northern Ireland. He was killed in Drogheda two years ago.
The INLA suffered a serious setback between December 1986 and March 1987. A bloody interanal dispute involving the breakaway Irish People's Liberation Organisation left 12 people dead. Mary McGlinchey, wife of Dominic, died in this dispute. Dessie O'Hare, nicknamed the Border Fox, was heavily involved in this blood letting.
The killing of Gino Gallagher yesterday raised concern of another internal feud being activated.
In the subsequent years, as a result of the damage caused by these divisions the INLA was forced to scale down its operations. However, in the early 1990s it began to re emerge as a dangerous force.
Its last killings were in the summer of 1994, when it claimed the lives of two leading UVF members and an innocent civilian on the Shankill.
