WHAT DO NORAID DO?
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Noraid have units throughout all parts of the US. They were originally set up to assist IRA members to escape justice for their terrorism. They help to finance the IRA, they act as the IRA's voice in North America offering propaganda services and they seek to supply weapons both directly and indirectly into the hands of the terrorists. |
Noraid have been very active in assisting IRA members to escape justice. In the 1980's they aided several IRA terrorists wanted for mass murder in Europe to escape justice. More recently, Noraid have been very active in campaigning for four US men captured in Florida by the FBI and are being held on a charge of procuring weapons for the IRA.
Their main function though is in raising finance and justifying terrorism, or in other words acting as the IRA's mouth in North America. They place a strong emphasis on activism, action and propaganda portrayed through a narrow channel of sound bites and stereotypes. Noraid’s almost delirious emphasis on stage-managed protests, orchestration of the media and manipulation of the public serve to illustrate its empty message but more importantly, their fear of exposure.
Noraid concentrate much of their efforts at lobbying politicians, and the media. Also at a local level they organise theme nights in pubs or communal viewings of well edited videos designed to reinforce the Noraid agenda. These are used to ensure activists are up to date with Noraid's perspective on the latest issues and are well versed in politically correct lingo. It is a fair point to argue that most Noraid members are actually the victims of skewed propaganda and not just the disseminators of it. These sessions are often used to recruit new members but they also bolster the finance of the chapters who organise them. In addition to the private pub gatherings Noraid maintain their profile through a regular series of marches and confrontation. This can range from attempting to gain respectability by joining St Patrick's Day parades in the US, to direct confrontational marches to disrupt British business in the United States or to enforce their pickets and boycotts of British made products.
The most sinister side of Noraid's activity has been to directly supply the IRA with terrorist weapons. Small shipments of arms have been sent directly from the US although tight US gun export laws and custom controls have meant that Noraid have not been as effective in this area as their terrorist beneficiaries would like. Despite this handicap Noraid have sought to supply the best quality weapons when quantity is not an option. They have also been able to supply alternative support such as transport arrangements for weapons shipment.
Aside from the violence Noraid facilitate in Ulster, in the US Noraid involve themselves in less sinister cultural projects to promote all things Irish and Gaelic. The mindset behind this is a drive to perpetuate and create the Irish cultural ideal they believe they are fighting for. They believe they are working towards the perfect Irish society, one which will triumph when their terrorism has removed those who they see as the destroyers of that culture from the territory they aggressively claim as their own. A common feature of their cultural perpetuation would be the act of placing a memorial to the IRA hunger strikers or victims of the IRA Irish famine in towns and cities in the US, similar to the memorial Gerry Adams unveiled recently as a symbol of his revolution with Fidel Castro in Cuba. Memorials, monoliths and cultural excerises are effective public relations for Noraid. It helps them to bolster the lie that they are a humanitarian organisation, a snub to the emptied farms and orphaned children who are their victims in Ulster.