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Group Profile: Dissident Irish Republicans
02 Oct 2011Background:
The Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA – or just IRA) was established in 1969 after many members of the original Irish Republican Army (IRA) opposed its position on recognising the jurisdiction and authority of parliaments in London, Belfast and Dublin. The original IRA had been fighting for a united Ireland, free from British administration in the province of Ulster (Northern Ireland) and called a ceasefire in 1972 after the British Government suspended the Northern Ireland Parliament and introduced direct rule. PIRA’s terrorist campaigns during the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s affected Northern Ireland, Great Britain and mainland Europe. Dissident Irish Republicans opposed to the Northern Ireland peace process which largely followed from the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, or Belfast Agreement as it is officially called, have reared their head in recent years as they continue to engage in direct military action. The two main dissident groups, which developed after splits within PIRA, are the Real IRA (RIRA), established in 1997 and the Continuity IRA (CIRA), established in 1986. The term Oglaigh na hEireann (ONH – ‘soldiers of Ireland’) is a term that refers to all who are engaged in Irish nationalist militancy and is also used by these groups and by individual dissident republicans who are not aligned to a particular group. On 28 July 2005, PIRA declared a formal end to its armed campaign. The 32 County Sovereignty Movement (32CSM) is a political organisation that supports the use of physical force and is often referred to as the political wing of RIRA. The Irish National Liberation Army, a former dissident group, declared a ceasefire in 1998 and formally ended its armed campaign in 2009. The original IRA, PIRA, RIRA, CIRA, INLA and all other Republican dissident groups, remain proscribed terrorist organisations in the United Kingdom, and in several other countries.
Notable Incidents:
RIRA members carried out the Omagh bombing, which killed 29 people in August 1998, a rocket propelled grenade attack on the headquarters of Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service (‘MI6’) in London in September 2000 and more recently, in March 2009, they shot dead two soldiers as they collected a pizza delivery outside their barracks in Antrim, and seriously injured several other individuals caught up in the shooting, and also ambushed a policeman on patrol. On 2 April 2011, 25-year-old Police Service of Northern Ireland constable Ronan Kerr was killed by a car bomb. The dissident republican unit believed to be responsible includes former PIRA members who are in allegiance with, but operate autonomously from, RIRA. In May 2011, dissidents opposed to the historic state visit of Britain’s Elizabeth II to the Republic of Ireland were thought to be behind bomb threats to London, none of which turned out to be credible.
Threat level:
The report of the UK’s Independent Monitoring Commission in May 2010 concluded that dissident republicans remain highly active and dangerous. In July 2010, the Belfast Telegraph reported that security services both sides of the Irish border believe that dissidents had obtained heavy weapons, including rockets and assault rifles, from illegal arms dealers in southeast Europe. Jonathan Evans, Director General of the UK’s Security Service (‘MI5’) said in September 2010 that recently there had been signs of co-ordination between the various dissident groups which had previously tended to form separate groups based on marginal distinctions and personal rivalries. He said: “Whilst at present the dissidents’ campaign is focused in Northern Ireland we cannot exclude the possibility that they might seek to extend their attack to Great Britain as violent Republican groups have traditionally done.” MI5 currently rates the threat from the dissidents as ‘substantial’, the third highest threat category. However, unlike at the height of ‘The Troubles’ throughout the 1960s, 70s, 80s and until the mid 1990s, the dissidents do not appear to have the support and sympathy of the majority of the Northern Ireland public, including Catholic nationalists, as many do not want to see the clock turned back to pre-1998 and the violence of The Troubles, and there was mass public revolt at the killing of Ronan Kerr.