When the Provisional IRA's December 1974 ceasefire had ended in early 1976 and it had returned to violence, it had lost the hope that it had felt in the early 1970s that it could force a rapid British withdrawal from Northern Ireland, and instead developed a strategy known as the "Long War", which involved a less intense but more sustained campaign of violence that could continue indefinitely.
Kada se primirje IRA-e iz prosinca 1974. završilo u siječnju 1976., skupina se vratila nasilju, izgubivši nadu iz ranih 1970-ih u brzo povlačenje Britanaca i razvivši strategiju "dugog rata", pod kojom se podrazumijevala manje intenzivna, ali održljivija kampanja nasilja koja bi se mogla nastaviti u beskonačnost.