The Provisional Patriotic Alliance, which took over the British Isles in the early 1940s, was composed of an alliance between Irish Nationalists and proponents of Scottish independence from England. They rose up in 1942 against a weakened British government, resulting in a stunning success and overthrow of the UK government. PPA rule was solidified in 1943 in the Declaration of Glasgow, which established a federation of four marginally independent states; England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland. Official PPA documentation referred to this formation as the United Federation (UF) but most referred to this organization as the Provisional Patriotic Alliance still, since that alliance was never formally dissolved.

The PPA had its beginnings just before the Great War. Calls for home rule in Scotland (similar to the home rule given to Ireland in 1914) were broadcast, but the coming war on the continent meant they were pushed aside. Mid-way through the war, the Easter Uprising in Ireland was heavily suppressed by British forces, resulting in widespread anti-British sentiment throughout the country. This eventually culminated in the War for Independence and the Irish Civil War, which resulted in the formation of the Irish Free State and Northern Ireland. In any event, by the mid-1920s Ireland was split between Northern Ireland, which was controlled by the British, and the Irish Free State, which controlled the rest of the country.

In the early 1930s, a relatively radical group, the Gaelic Union, developed in secret in Queensferry, near Edinburgh. This group aimed to accomplish Scottish Home Rule through force (a radical wing of the party later developed that demanded full independence). It was led by a young Oliver MacNeill, the son of a sailor who was crippled during the Great War and later died of cancer relating to the asbestos used aboard warships. MacNeill traced his descent through his mother (who was Irish; his father was from the Isle of Man) and regularly visited his family in Waterford, Ireland. During one of these trips in July 1933, he was introduced to Colman O’Maonaigh, a distant relation from County Cork who was a member of Fianna Fáil, a political party that opposed the Irish Free State. O’Maonaigh offered to take MacNeill to some meetings of the party to discuss their ideology.

During this time, the Irish Free State was working to marginalize Fianna Fáil, whom it felt was becoming increasingly influenced by Socialists and Communists. This was’t incorrect; a mission from the Irish Republican Army (who supported Fianna Fáil in some form or another) was sent to Socialist Russia in 1925. This relationship had petered out by 1931, however, but Communist agitators within the party still remained. MacNeill himself opposed Communism to some degree, but was willing to sacrifice some of his beliefs for the goal of Scottish Home Rule.

MacNeill returned to Queensferry in August to consult with the other members of the Gaelic Union. Membership by this time had grown to about 200, mostly composed of poor farmers from around Edinburgh and some disgruntled factory workers. It was decided, based on a document dated August 6th, 1934, that a ‘United Front’ with Fianna Fáil and some nascent Scottish left-wing groups. This was solidified in a meeting between Gaelic Union and other Scottish representatives and members of Fianna Fáil in a meeting dated October 29th.

Several leading members of the Gaelic Union suggested that an uprising similar to the Easter Uprising in Ireland would meet with limited success in Scotland. This was considered by the Irish Republicans who decided to agree, despite the protests of the Scottish Communists and similar groups. Gaelic Union membership continued to grow through 1934 and 1935, and it became one of the best known unspoken secrets of the Scottish Highlands. The Union even began to seep into Britain in Summer 1935, and a wing was established in Leeds.

Representatives of the Union appealed to factory workers throughout the British Isles and others who felt put upon by the British economy in the early 20th century. A targeted campaign, aimed at women, was launched in June 1935 (the Gaelic Union promised universal suffrage for all) that drew even more membership. This recruiting did not go unnoticed by the British, however; the Security Service had a file on the group dating from January 1934 which labelled it a ‘din of Communists, Socialists, and Anarchists who wish to fragment the United Kingdom’. Membership was estimated at less than 100 (in reality, the Union had about 450 members by that point).

Charges of treason were being prepared for MacNeill in August 1935, but Security Service agents had a hard time finding any concrete crime that MacNeill had committed in the territory of the United Kingdom to charge him with. As a safety precaution, all meetings between Fianna Fáil and the Gaelic Union leadership were held on pleasure boats off the coast of Dublin. On September 2, 1935, the Security Service sent a wire to the head of the Irish Free State’s security service, informing him of a ‘conspiracy to overthrow the state by Scottish Anarchists and Fianna Fáil’. This telegram was ignored due to high tensions between the UK and the Irish state, however.

Meanwhile, the Union and Fianna Fáil were working on a plan to overthrow the British government. Fianna Fáil promised to acquire arms for the plan uprising, while the Gaelic Union worked on building up public support within England for the uprising. Not discussed was the role of Northern Ireland; Fianna Fáil planned to sweep into the country after the British Government was overthrown and force it to become part of the rest of Ireland.

In all, six plans were considered for the overthrow of the government:

Revolution Plan No. 1 called for an armed uprising similar to the Easter Rising occurring simultaneously in the northern English industrial cities and in Scotland, which would sweep the local governments out before marching on London. Gaelic Union leadership opposed this plan as unrealistic.

Revolution Plans No. 2 and 3 called for an insurgency within England itself that deposed the head of state and the heads of government offices, replacing them with Scottish or Irish officials in what amounted to a coup; the two plans differed in the exact details of the insurgency. This plan was also rejected as unrealistic.

Revolution Plans No. 4 and 5 called for involving a foreign power (either Blue Germany or Socialist Russia) in overthrowing the government. These plans were considered heavily but eventually both were rejected due to the fear of being dominated by the larger countries.

Revolution Plan No. 6 called for building a secret army, trained in Ireland, and slipping them into the country when an ‘opportune moment for insurrection’ arose. This plan was eventually chosen.

Several other plans were considered but never given official names. Some involved using a freighter packed with explosives to destroy a major British warship in London while the King or head of state was onboard; another called for a similar action using an aircraft or a lorry. One plan posited a bombing campaign to destroy the Royal Air Force and use aircraft to bomb the British into submission, while still another called for starting an insurrection in India and using the distraction to overthrow the government (somewhat similarly to the Jacobite Uprising of 1745). All were rejected as unrealistic, too expensive, or otherwise unfeasible.

Revolution Plan No. 6 was selected in a meeting of January 4th, 1936. The secret army (known as the Gaelic Cooperation Corps and posited to be a charity organization) began preliminary organization in March. The head of the army was chosen to be Callahan Baird, a 55-year-old veteran of the Great War. Most of the general staff was chosen from either veterans of the British Army, commanders from the IRA and some unemployed generals who had been educated at schools abroad. One of the most influential was Kramer Vogt, a 72-year-old who had been educated at the legendary German staff school during the Great War. He helped to form the Cooperation Corps’ University (a cover name) in Galway.

The Cooperation Corps quickly grew. Willing members of the Gaelic Union were sent on ‘retreats’ to Ireland for training starting in April 1936. The membership of the Union had grown to about 25,000 by this point; with the formation of the Cooperation Corps, membership grew steadily as recruitment could now be done publicly under the guise of the Corps. Training in Galway was sophisticated if somewhat low-tech; lorries and automobiles were converted into ‘tanks’ by building plywood constructions over them. A Tank School was later established near Athenry using some secondhand tanks bought from the United States. Weaponry was mostly hunting arms that were legal in Ireland at the time, though heavier weapons, such as machine guns and mortars, began to arrive in mid 1937. By 1938, an Artillery School had been established (also near Athenry) and membership in the secret army was at about 9,000.

The British Security Service grew increasingly worried about the Cooperation Corps as 1937 rolled past, but a new threat emerged on the continent; the rise of the Third Empire. Suddenly, the British felt threatened both by the Gaelic Union and by the French, but the Prime Minister decided that it was necessary to focus all attention on the French threat first.

The Fascist Crisis in 1938 would turn out to be the perfect opportunity for the Gaelic Union and Fianna Fáil. The British put the majority of their resources into combating the French threat, withdrawing many of their warships from foreign stations and putting conscription into effect. This meant pressure on the Gaelic Union receded as the security services worked to combat Fascist agitators and the Fifth Column. When the French crossed the English Channel in June 1938, MacNeill (who still led the Union) called an emergency meeting with members of Fianna Fáil in Dundalk. There, he gave the codeword Toirneach (Thunder) and left, indicating that the Revolution plan should be prepared for imminent activation. Recruitment for the Secret Army ramped up in Scotland and Ireland, and, by early 1939, at least a Division could be theoretically fielded by the Cooperation Corps.

Some tension remained in the Corps, however, as Vogt, the German commander of the General Staff College, felt that every man should be trained for a rank above his own and that the army should be significantly expanded in size when the time for revolution came. MacNeill countered that they could not count on the Scottish public to join in the uprising, but did agree that some enhanced officer training should take place. MacNeill instead posed the idea of recruiting from the ranks of the Irish Republican Army, but the leadership of Fianna Fáil quashed this idea as the two organizations had soured over each other.

Rivalry between the Irish Republican Army and the Cooperation Corps began around this time, when one IRA member tried to join the organization but was denied. The IRA (which seemed to not fully grasp the Cooperation Corps’ goals) then went on to steal a great amount of ammunition from the tank school at Athenry, prompting anger from the Gaelic Union. Fianna Fáil responded by putting more pressure on the Irish Government (which had severed its Oath of Allegiance to the British in 1937) to round up all members of the IRA. This campaign had some success; the residual effect of the IRA ramping up its activity, however, turned out to be beneficial for the Union. In October 1938, three IRA members were found with handguns and Fascist French pamphlets in Northern Ireland and executed by British Army soldiers. This caused an uproar among the Catholics in Northern Ireland and provided ample ammunition for the Gaelic Union to use among its own ranks, stating that being caught with a Union pamphlet would ‘probably lead to a similar fate among the Imperialists of England’.

The Invasion of England was devastating to the English economy (which had already been weakened by the Great Depression). The Home Guard was formed in February 1939 to assist the regular army in resisting the invasion, but the French continued rolling towards London through fanatical resistance in the countryside. By 1940, the French were in the suburbs where desperate house-to-house fighting took place. Meanwhile, several members of the Union’s ruling council were calling for action immediately, but MacNeill and the Fianna Fáil representatives advised caution. MacNeill felt that the armed state of the British government, as well as the French invasion, would only cause trouble if the Union acted now. Instead, he advised waiting until the French were forced back to the continent before acting. Secret training of the army continued; at least 25,000 men and women were in the Cooperation Corps in 1940, including a significant armored detachment and some artillery. Even a small air force was formed, mostly composed of pilots either from abroad or sympathetic Irish or Scottish flyers. The Cooperation Corps was able to afford a variety of expensive weapons, mostly through their connections in Fianna Fáil though some weapons (such as modern tanks) had to be stolen from the British or other countries.

By 1941, the French had been pushed back and MacNeill decided that the time to act approached. The secret army began to be moved to Scotland to begin the insurrection, and, by March 1942, all the pieces were in place for the overthrow of the British government. Three detachments of the army were in Scotland while one larger detachment was posed to march on England. Fianna Fáil, who had been helping to organize support among the Irish population, promised that more troops could be sent if early successes could be gained by the Cooperation Corps.

The catalyst came on June 2nd, 1942, when the Home Guard was disbanded. The next day, MacNeill publicly declared the Provisional Patriotic Alliance between Fianna Fáil and the Gaelic Union; the Cooperation Corps marched on their initial targets later that day. Edinburgh and Glasgow were seized without undue difficulty; only some shots were exchanged between local police and the Cooperation Corps. The British Army units stationed in Edinburgh gave up without a fight, while those in Glasgow offered to join the Cooperation Corps.

Meanwhile, the detachment in the South met with some more difficulty. They had commandeered several trains to lead their invasion, but they were held up when they reached Leeds by a block on the tracks. The block was cleared by ramming it and the trains continued through Leeds and south towards London.

One of the ingenious aspects of Plan No. 6 was the use of radio by the invaders. When Glasgow was captured, the radio tower there was used to transmit messages to the rest of the English Isles stating that the government had been overthrown and that the Provisional Patriotic Alliance now ruled. Though this wasn’t true, many in the countryside had no way of knowing this, and even some in London were worried initially. It was played off as a hoax throughout much of London until June 4th, when the PPA’s trains arrived in London. Tanks and armed men stormed the ravaged streets of the capital, taking the army by complete surprise (they were mostly deployed around the southern coast still). A belated withdrawal order was issued to the capital, but, by that time, the PPA detachment was in control of a majority of London including the inner city. On June 5th, detachments from Scotland arrived and the PPA’s hand was strengthened even further.

On June 6th, the government was officially deposed through the signing of the Declaration of London. This declaration provided for Home Rule of Scotland and, acceding to the wishes of Fianna Fáil, the end of recognition for Northern Ireland as a British territory. Furthermore, it instituted the PPA as the primary government of the British Isles ‘until such time as a new government is appropriate’. This meant that, though elections were still held, MacNeill would remain Prime Minister of Scotland for the next decade and the armed forces would be commanded by the Provisional Patriotic Alliance.