Short Magazine Lee-Enfield Mk III* .303 in bolt action rifle 1916, used by the Irish Republican Army, 1974 (c)

Irish Republican paramilitaries stepped up their campaign of violence in Northern Ireland in 1971, increasingly targeting Royal Ulster Constabulary and British Army personnel. Initially they were armed with older weapons such as this Lee-Enfield, but large numbers of modern arms, including semi-automatic AR15 rifles, began to be smuggled into the province from the United States.