RUTHLESS GANG BEHIND REAL IRA
Ruthless gang behind 'Real IRA'
THE breakaway terrorist gang which calls itself the Real IRA consists of ruthless experienced bomb-makers who have defected from the Provisionals.
The group has developed sophisticated bombs, some of which can be detonated from a mobile phone, and was responsible for the bomb in Banbridge, Co Down, causing �10m in damage and injuring 35 people.
It is understood the group will quickly outstrip the Continuity IRA, the other breakaway organisation, and the long standing Irish National Liberation Army (INLA), in size.
Its immediate aims are to prove that the IRA and Sinn Fein leadership cannot deliver an end to violence and to destroy the Northern Ireland peace accord because it formalises the partition of Ireland.
The movement, known to republicans as the 'Super Provos' was born out of a Sinn Fein split in Co Louth.
This was followed by an attempt to end the ceasefire by calling delegates to an IRA extraordinary army convention held in Donegal last October and at which, Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness attended and successfully defended their strategy.
A few days later the IRA's quartermaster-general (QMG) who controlled its network of arms dumps in the republic and Northern Ireland, resigned.
The QMG has since persuaded most of the IRA's other quartermasters and its engineers, the terrorists trained to make bombs and mortars, to join him.
The roots of the breakaway go back further. Since 1995 the Real IRA's leaders have been surreptitiously siphoning off IRA arms, detonators and Semtex explosives in preparation for a split.
It is these supplies that the Real IRA is now using. It is not yet ready to provoke a feud by opening the underground IRA arms bunkers containing the tons of weapons smuggled from Libya in the mid-1980's. The QMG is believed to have promised they would not be touched.
Instead, the IRA dissidents are known to have asked for more help from Libya.
Although the Real IRA has the technology to make
weapons and bombs, it is short of firearms and this explains why it has engaged in only one gun attack, on Lurgan RUC Station in Co Armagh this month.
Police put the new group's numbers at about 150. Its political wing, the 32 County Sovereignty Committee, was established in the Fingal area of Co Dublin just before Christmas.
A Sunday newspaper listed leading members of the group, in the aftermath of the Omagh bombing.
It also said the the group's growth was a headache for the police and for the IRA and Sinn Fein leadership, who the Real IRA claims, have been prepared to tell the Irish government the names of defectors from its ranks.
THE breakaway terrorist gang which calls itself the Real IRA consists of ruthless experienced bomb-makers who have defected from the Provisionals.
The group has developed sophisticated bombs, some of which can be detonated from a mobile phone, and was responsible for the bomb in Banbridge, Co Down, causing �10m in damage and injuring 35 people.
It is understood the group will quickly outstrip the Continuity IRA, the other breakaway organisation, and the long standing Irish National Liberation Army (INLA), in size.
Its immediate aims are to prove that the IRA and Sinn Fein leadership cannot deliver an end to violence and to destroy the Northern Ireland peace accord because it formalises the partition of Ireland.
The movement, known to republicans as the 'Super Provos' was born out of a Sinn Fein split in Co Louth.
This was followed by an attempt to end the ceasefire by calling delegates to an IRA extraordinary army convention held in Donegal last October and at which, Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness attended and successfully defended their strategy.
A few days later the IRA's quartermaster-general (QMG) who controlled its network of arms dumps in the republic and Northern Ireland, resigned.
The QMG has since persuaded most of the IRA's other quartermasters and its engineers, the terrorists trained to make bombs and mortars, to join him.
The roots of the breakaway go back further. Since 1995 the Real IRA's leaders have been surreptitiously siphoning off IRA arms, detonators and Semtex explosives in preparation for a split.
It is these supplies that the Real IRA is now using. It is not yet ready to provoke a feud by opening the underground IRA arms bunkers containing the tons of weapons smuggled from Libya in the mid-1980's. The QMG is believed to have promised they would not be touched.
Instead, the IRA dissidents are known to have asked for more help from Libya.
Although the Real IRA has the technology to make
weapons and bombs, it is short of firearms and this explains why it has engaged in only one gun attack, on Lurgan RUC Station in Co Armagh this month.
Police put the new group's numbers at about 150. Its political wing, the 32 County Sovereignty Committee, was established in the Fingal area of Co Dublin just before Christmas.
A Sunday newspaper listed leading members of the group, in the aftermath of the Omagh bombing.
It also said the the group's growth was a headache for the police and for the IRA and Sinn Fein leadership, who the Real IRA claims, have been prepared to tell the Irish government the names of defectors from its ranks.
Further Information
Publisher: ULSTER HERALD
Ref: UH/0058
Published Date: 20-Aug-98
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