Soldiers of Goidelia

The Soldiers of Goidelia (SoG; : Fianna Goidéil) is a   operating in Airgialla and the Goidelic-speaking regions of southwestern Tiperyn. The Soldiers of Goidelia is the largest and oldest paramilitary organization in the region, founded in 1920 at the beginning of the Goidelic Insurrection during the Grand Campaigns.

The SoG operates primarily in the Goidelic-speaking Tiperyn duchies and princedoms of Darimh, Rosraig, and Poc'her, as well as in pockets of the Tipsprek-speaking Idlerein and Tytsjerkstera. In these regions, the organization has engaged in armed resistance and both rural and urban against the Tiperyn government, ranging from the murder of law enforcement officers and Holy Guardsmen to the destruction of critical civilian and military infrastructure. Meanwhile, in Airgialla, the SoG operates more as a political and labor organization, running several communes similar to the Arbenz model. There its paramilitary arm acts primarily as security and as enforcers for its communes.

The Soldiers of Goidelia have been classified as a by Tiperyn and the North-South Concordant. However, the SoG branches operating in Airgialla and Tiperyn have been publicly supported by members of ICOSEC and have received substantial financial support from several nations. The SoG's insurrection is considered by many to be a continuation of the Grand Campaigns where democratic forces actively supported and fought alongside Goidelic revolutionaries - including the SoG - in a campaign to take the Tiperyn Isles. Although Tiperyn ultimately only conceded the archipelago of Airgialla independence, the Tiperyn Ministry of Diplomacy has consistently attributed the SoG's dealings within Tiperyn as the result of ICOSEC support.

Early Pan-Goidelic Movement (1820-1920)
The origins of the Pan-Goidelic movement trace back to the late 18th and early 19th centuries when the first organized opposition against Tiperyn rule over Goidelic regions of the Tiperyn Isles took hold. Goidelic had begun to form a  within the four Goidelic-dominant duchies and princedoms based around their ethnicity, language and resentment towards state suppression of their opposing religious practices. While the Tiperyn royal family had derived their power from God - a narrative that satisfied its Anglic, Tipslansk and Brittanic populations - this new Goidelic nationalism derived its power from the people and their common culture. In 1820, the Sons of Airgialla was formed in the Airgiallan city of Rosrick - a major hub for the Tiperyn merchant fleet and the Realm Armada. The organization espoused values of and anti-monarchism and began holding protests in the Rosrick town square. The movement was violently suppressed by the Tiperyn government and forced underground. As the popular appeal for the Pan-Goidelic movement grew, Tiperyn dissolved the Realm Guard regiments of the duchies of Airgialla, Poc'her and Rosraig and the princedom of Darimh in 1823 and began stationing large numbers of Holy Guardsmen in and around large population centers. The Holy Guard was founded in 1390 in response to an armed rebellion spurred by Realm Guard regiments under the control of discontent duchy governments. Rather than swearing allegiance to the Realm, the Holy Guard swear allegiance to the Empress and the First Apostolic Church.

Following the dissolution of the Goidelic Realm Guard regiments, Goidelic citizens were practically speaking barred from military service as Realm Guard regiments from other duchies were largely homogeneous ethnically. This stewed discontent further, as career soldiers were dishonorably discharged and sent home. For almost a century several groups affiliated with the Pan-Goidelic movement engaged in civil disobedience and violent resistance against the Holy Tiperyn Realm. The most significant incident of resistance took place between 5 February to 15 February 1867 when a Sons of Airgialla supported-prison riot at the Rosrick Penitentiary coincided with an armed revolt in the city center. Inmates took control of the prison's armory and executed 10 prison guards. Meanwhile, Goidelic militants seized the Rosrick Constabulary, four major railroad stations and destroyed the equivalent of $10 million in 2018 dollars of military shipments in the Rosrick Harbor bound for Kaya. The militants held out for 10 days before being destroyed by the 145th Idlerein Heavy Rifle Regiment and several Holy Guard companies. The aftermath would be known within Goidelic communities as the month of tears as Holy Guard forces rounded up thousands of suspected militants and civilians and imprisoned or executed them. Although the crown cites a lack of evidence, most historians agree that between 5,000 and 15,000 Goidelic citizens were summarily executed by Tiperyn forces between 15 February and 30 March 1867.

The purges of the spring of 1867 and subsequent crackdowns broke the back of the Pan-Goidelic movement, and it would not return to prominence until the early 20th century. Garnering support from the world's democracies - primarily Brigantica - and operating in the underground, the Pan-Goidelic movement gathered strength in southwestern Tiperyn. With the beginning of the Grand Campaigns, the focus of the Tiperyn government went elsewhere. At the height of the conflict in 1920, as Tiperyn was engaged on multiple fronts in Artemia, Kesh and at sea, the movement, unified under the banner of the Soldiers of Goidelia, began its last insurrection against the Holy Realm.

The Goidelic Insurrection (1920-1926)

 * See more: The Grand Campaigns

The Grand Campaigns began in 1915, but initially lacked the involvement of Tiperyn. Initially a conflict between the Geudic Goetia and Austrasia against Ovancia over control of its Geudic speaking province of Husseren-Wesserling. Tiperyn engaged in a policy of armed neutrality, mobilizing its military, but avoiding conflict with the warring powers in continental Artemia. However, in 1919, as the Goetic alliance broke through towards northern Ovancia, Tiperyn - as well as a loose alliance consisting of Brigantica, the Vojiskiy Empire, Agrana y Griegro and Kaya - joined the conflict, coming to the aid of Ovancia. At this time, the Pan-Goidelic Movement, which had been festering albeit underground due to the preceding mobilization, saw an opportunity.

The Pan-Goidelic Movement had been gaining steam in the 1910s. When Tiperyn joined the Grand Campaigns, local Rostrenenn union leader Marcus Walsh set out to unify the various Pan-Goidelic Movements. On 30 January 1920, Walsh founded the Soldiers of Goidelia. Three months later in April, Tiperyn began to deploy troops in Kesh to support its Arab nationalist allies in a civil war against the Caliphate in what is now modern-day Qurac, Naseristan and Asharistan. Soon after, the alliance fighting against the Goetic alliance in Artemia split as a result of the rise of the Ovancian republican movement. Thus, within two years, Tiperyn's armed neutrality had transformed into a two-front war against both the Goetic alliance, opponents of Artemian imperialism in Kesh, and a new pro-democratic alliance. With Tiperyn's military stretched the furthest it had been in its history, the SoG made its move.

On 9 July 1920, SoG cells throughout western Tiperyn began to ambush Tiperyn military units and conduct sabotage on military and government targets. The organization had garnered widespread political support from local governments in Goidelic-speaking areas. This support ranged from mayors and local trade union bosses all the way up to direct support from the Duchy of Airgialla and Princedom of Darimh. Thus, early on in its campaign, the SoG controlled a substantial amount of territory - including the oil-rich Darimh Valley. The militants had begun to receive substantial support from the Brigantic-led pro-democratic alliance in the form of weapons, food, equipment, and training. At its peak, the SoG consisted of over 220,000 militants. However, the insurrectionists never advanced east of the city of Kastell. By 1924, the insurrectionists had been pushed back to the strait between Rosraig and Airgialla and would be forced off the isle of Goidelia on 9 August 1924. By the end of the Grand Campaigns, as Tiperyn's alliance was on its backfoot in Kesh and Artemia and the Brigantic alliance had grown to become a greater threat than the neutered Goetia - which had fallen to a Tiperyn-incited communist revolution - an armistice was signed. The Duchy of Airgialla was granted its independence as there was little appetite for an invasion of the archipelago against substantial fortified resistance from the Soldiers of Goidelia. On 22 June 1926, the Goidelic Republic of Airgialla was founded at the behest of pressure from Brigantica to transition to democracy. The system of nobility in Airgialla was maintained, with Duke Fearghus Ó Raghallaigh remaining as head of state. Practical control of Airgialla was initially handed over to the Soldiers of Goidelia until 1928 when its first elections were held.

Ideological History
The Soldiers of Goidelia is a  organization and follows the tenants of autonomy, direct democracy, environmentalism, feminism, multiculturalism, self-defense, self-governance, and elements of a sharing economy. Its variant of Communalism has been called "Goidelic Libertarianism" and "Physical-Force Confederalism".

The SoG has had a long history as a paramilitary organization dedicated to the tenants of Libertarian Socialism as compared to the  Airgiallan brethren. This is primarily due to the lack of a large Goidelic intellectual elite on the Tiperyn mainland and the cultural aspect as Goidelic communities were of a much looser and democratic nature. The original SoG would collapse after the end of the mainland Goidelic insurrection.

In 1972, militant Duvalists would revive the SoG and declare a restarting of the original insurgency. This era of the SoG is often known as the "Official" era of the organization. While this Duvalist SoG would be semi-successful in attracting recruits under the promise of revolution of one of the 'Imperial Core' in which a free socialist Goidelic state would be established, its greatest success was that of foreign support. Goetia and URSA would immediately take notice of the organization and provide both funding and weapons which were desperately needed by the insurgency. This era of the organization would end in 1984 after several of its top leaders would be arrested. Known as the 'Drulane 5' these leaders would interact with the writings of Green Liberation Army spokesperson Coronel Eduardo and would later conduct a half a year-long dialogue with him during the 1986 Arbenz ceasefire.

These exchanges would revive and strengthen Libertarian Socialist ideology and aims of the SoG as in 1987, imprisoned leaders called for the abandonment of the establishment of a Duvalist state inside Tiperyn and instead to seek national autonomy and independence via society-building in Goidelia rather than state-building starting what is often called the "Provisional" era of the organization. This would represent a mass ideological shift from orthodox Duvalism to that not all would agree with. The SoG would split with the Revolutionaries of Goidelia being formed shortly after. However, the majority of the organization accepted the new political doctrine and began to implement it in secret across clandestine meeting groups within Tiperyn and open communes in Airgialla.

For several years from 1986 through 1995, the SoG would pause its armed campaign to pursue ‘internal reflection’ which aimed at not only gathering resources, arms, and volunteers but to creating a cohesive communalist strategy and program for Goidelia and wider Tiperyn.

Goals
The Soldiers of Goidelia despite its libertarian socialist orientation is still first and foremost a separatist organization and has organized its goals as such. Its ultimate goal has been the separation of majority Goidelic regions from the Holy Tiperyn Realm along with a union with Airgialla to form a socialist confederation. The SoG has repeatedly called this proposed nation the Confederation of Free Goidelia. The areas to be 'liberated' are the Duchy of Poc'her, Principality of Darimh, Duchy of Rosraig, and areas of the Duchy of Idlerein. The SoG has repeatedly stated if allowed it would peacefully coexist with Tiperyn.

Activities
The Soldiers of Goidelia is one of the most well-known terrorists and guerrilla organizations in Tiperyn due to its very publicized acts of violence in public places. The SoG has engaged in both a rural and urban guerrilla campaign that has been waged since its inception and has caused a combined 100,000+ killed in its history.

Notable Attacks
The most notable attack the SoG ever carried out was in 2013 when the Lord-Mayor Vilbrand of Darimh was assassinated after the car he was driving had a 20-pound Semtex bomb that had been planted before detonated, killing him instantly. This was done in tandem with an RPG attack on a nearby Tiperyn Realm Defence checkpoint that left 4 dead and 7 injured. This was done in retaliation for the death of William McConnelly, a member of the 'Drulane 5', in prison. Rumored to be due to poor treatment and torture at the behest of the Ministry of Subterfuge. Lord-Mayor Vilbrand's funeral was attended by the Duke of Idlerein, the ruler of Idlerein, as well as several other nobles. He remains the only member of the Tiperyn nobility to be killed due to Goidelic Insurgent action.

In 1997, one of the reformed SoG's first actions was to commit to a sniper campaign. Its first target was the Rosraig city of Ashling (Aisling). from 1997 to 2005, the SoG would commit to one of its most extensive sniping campaigns in the city as over 100 policemen and Holy Guardsmen were killed via SoG snipers during this period. The weapon of choice for the SoG at this time was the Goetian and the Cerveran. Dedicated sniper weapons were also used such as the Arbenzan  which were used to great effect. While SoG snipers were not as accurate compared to Realm Defence snipers, they were effective to the point that Guardsmen were thoroughly demoralized and foot patrols reduced.

Resource Support
In the early 2000s, it is believed the SoG began smuggling oil drilled in Darimh to Airgialla to sell on the black market. The Tiperyn government believes that this, in addition to the Airgiallan labor union and League of Free Nations funding, comprises the most significant portion of the SoG's revenue. This has been controversial, as the SoG and Airgiallan government deny involvement. The accusations lead to the ultimate severance of all trade relations between Tiperyn and Airgialla in 2003, forcing the latter to rely almost entirely on global markets. Prior to then, Tiperyn and Airgialla had maintained a precarious trade relationship, with Airgialla being an exporter of natural gas and services and Tiperyn being primarily an exporter of manufactured goods, coal, oil, and agricultural products.