The Real IRA is a hard-line splinter group that broke away from the Irish Republican Army (IRA) in November 1997 on the background of the Northern Ireland Peace Process. The founding members of the RIRA objected to the cease-fire called by the IRA in 1997, choosing instead to continue the armed struggle. While the Provisional IRA, allied with the Sinn Fein Party, supported--and indeed helped to achieve--the peace settlement, the dissident republican groups declared that they would accept nothing less than the union of Northern Ireland with the British-controlled Irish Republic. The group’s stated objective is the disruption of the peace process, leading to a complete British withdrawal from North Ireland.

                                                                                         

The IRA dissidents who resigned from the mainstream republican movement eventually regrouped in order to set up a new organization, the “Real” IRA. The group includes a number of the IRA's 12-strong “army executive,” who resigned, along with quartermaster-general McKevitt in protest of the official IRA support for the peace process. The dissidents formed a new “army executive,” which was to elect an army council to run the new organization.

It is strongly suspected that the Real IRA is the military wing of the 32 County Sovereignty Committee, lead in part by Bernadette Sands McKevitt, who serves as acting vice president. The Committee, established in December of 1997, strives for the full independence of 26 counties in the Irish Republic and the six counties of Nothern Ireland. Most of the support for the RIRA is thought to be in the Dundalk and Newry area with some support in Dublin.

The group is small in number and has suffered heavy setbacks at the hands of the Irish police. The RIRA recruited up to 30 experienced operators from ranks of the PIRA, mainly in the Republic but also in some areas in North Ireland. In addition, it embarked on a clandestine campaign to enroll younger recruits previously uninvolved in paramilitary activity. Estimates of total membership have varied from about 70 to 175. Some analysts think the most likely figure is about 100.

                                                                                                                  
The leader of the Real IRA group, Michael (Mickey) McKevitt is the former quartermaster-general of the IRA. McKevitt was responsible for arms shipments into Northern Ireland. In addition one of the IRA's former leading bomb-makers has joined the real IRA group. He is suspected of constructing bombs for both his group and the CIRA, which previously had only limited bomb-making skills. Another ex-IRA engineer, who was involved in constructing mortars, also joined the RIRA and is believed to have made the mortars used in attacks on security bases in the spring of 1998.

                                                                                                
The RIRA has been linked to a number of bombings; in each instance a car bomb was detonated subsequent to a warning call. British authorities are convinced that Real IRA is responsible for a 500lb car-bomb attack in the town of Bangridge in August 1997. No deaths resulted from any of the earlier bombings. The group has access to quantities of Semtex plastic explosive, detonators and a variety of other bomb-making components, taken from the IRA weapons stock.

The RIRA was responsible for a number of bomb and mortar attacks during 1997 and 1998.

• 16 September 1997 - van bomb exploded at RUC station in Markethill, County Armagh
• 6 January 1998 - car bomb was defused in the center of Banbridge, County Down
• 20 February 1998 - car bomb exploded at RUC station in Moira, County Down
• 23 February 1998 - car bomb exploded in centre of Portadown, County Armagh
• 10 March 1998 - mortar bomb attack on RUC station in Armagh, County Armagh
• 24 June 1998 - car bomb exploded in Newtownhamilton, County Armagh
• 22 July 1998 - mortar bomb attack on RUC station in Newry, County Down
• 28 July 1998 - incendiary bombs found in stores in Portadown, County Armagh
• 2 August 1998 - car bomb in centre of Banbridge, County Down

On Saturday August 15 1998 a car bomb packed with 500 lbs. of explosives detonated in the town of Omagh’s popular shopping district. The bombing has been called the single the bloodiest incident in Northern Ireland’s 30-year history of partisan conflict. Twenty-eight people were killed and hundreds injured. The RIRA claimed responsibility for the bombing. Outrage over the attack in both pro-British Protestant and pro-Irish Catholic communities forced the Real IRA to suspend it activities (18 August 1998).

Car bomb at Omagh's shopping distrcit