Thomas 'Ta' Power

Thomas Power (January 1954 – 20 January 1987) was an Irish republican socialist, also known as Ta Power, who was a leading member of the Irish Republican Socialist Party (IRSP) and Irish National Liberation Army (INLA). According to the Irish Republican Socialist Movement (IRSM) biography page on Power, he was from Friendly Street in the Markets area of south Belfast, where he had become an activist. He had originally joined the Official IRA but transferred allegiance to the INLA in 1975 while a prisoner in Long Kesh, along with 20 other men.

Power spent the longest period on remand—nearly four and a half years—of any republican prisoner.

Power, the ex-INLA chief of staff Hugh Torney told the authors Henry McDonald and Jack Holland, wanted to build a consensus within the INLA against Gerard Steenson, although he was willing to accept back the rest of the IPLO. aged 33, he was shot and killed on 20 January 1987 while drinking tea in Rosnaree Hotel on the Dublin Road, outside Drogheda in County Louth, Ireland, along with INLA leader John "Jap" O'Reilly. They were there to negotiate a truce with the IPLO. Also with them was Peter Stuart and Hugh Torney, who was injured. The Irish People's Liberation Organisation, which was largely composed of former INLA members, claimed responsibility. It is possible that Steenson was one of the killers—who both wore false beards O'Reilly died at the scene, Power in the ambulance later. and include the principles of 'collective leadership', 'politics in command' and other concepts Power believed would steer the IRSM away from a military-led strategy. Power, says the writer Andrew Sanders, was a "revered" figure in the INLA.

Jack Holland and Henry McDonald posited that "ubordinating military struggle to carefully thought-out political strategy had been Ta Power's dream for a long time. In the 1980s Sinn Féin and the IRA made that a reality with their ballot box and armalite policy. The provos learnt well from the lessons and mistakes of the IRSP/INLA".