The Real IRA's legacy of violence

With the deaths of 29 people in the 1998 Omagh bombing, the Real IRA succeeded in carrying out the worst single atrocity in more than 30 years of violence in Northern Ireland.

In the following months the group was also responsible for numerous explosions, booby traps and shootings as well as the discovery of several caches of arms.

The Real IRA was created from the split in the mainstream Provisional IRA in October 1997 when the IRA’s so-called quartermaster-general resigned over Sinn Fein’s stance on the peace process.

They denounced the “old leadership” of the Provisionals for betraying republicanism by allowing Sinn Féin to enter Stormont “in defiance of the constitutional position of Óglaigh na hÉireann to uphold the Republic”.

The group itself, with an estimated membership of up to 200, is thought to have access to the Provisional IRA’s explosives and detonators.

It also attracted skilled bomb-makers from the Provisionals to join the movement.

After its formation, the Real IRA was quick to take over from the older Continuity IRA as the main base for dissidents.

It is believed that the two groups have worked together on some attacks.

The Omagh bomb, which was planted during the town’s civic week in August 1998, killed 29 men, women and children, including a mother-to-be pregnant with twins.

Some 370 were injured in the attack and another 2,000 people, many of them suffering mental trauma, have also needed medical treatment.

Two weeks later the Real IRA planted a 500lb bomb in the main shopping area in Banbridge.

Although a warning was given, the information was inadequate and 33 people and two RUC officers were injured.

In the same year they bombed the centres of Moira and Portadown.

After the public outrage over Omagh, the Real IRA declared a ceasefire, only to re-emerge in February 2000.

The group also embarked on a series of so-called “barrack buster attacks” where police and military bases were targeted.

Bases in Armagh, Tyrone and Derry were fired upon with large mortars which, although often crude and inaccurate, were capable of causing death and destruction.

In June 2000, explosives believed to belong to the Real IRA were discovered in the grounds of the Northern Ireland Secretary’s residence at Hillsborough, Co Down.

London has also been the target for several terrifying mainland attacks by the group.

In June 2000, its first attack in the capital came when it bombed Hammersmith Bridge.

They received worldwide attention in September the same year when they fired an RPG rocket at the MI6 building – the British foreign intelligence HQ – in central London.

In 2001, the Metropolitan Police warned of a planned Real IRA bombing campaign to coincide with the General Election.

In March last year they packed explosives into a taxi outside BBC Television Centre in Shepherd’s Bush, west London, shattering windows and terrifying staff and people living nearby when it went off.

The US State Department designated the Real IRA as a foreign terrorist organisation in May last year.

It froze the group’s financial assets and in July, the British and Irish governments hinted of disarray within the Real IRA after arrests of several leading members.

But in August a bomb exploded in Ealing, west London outside a packed pub, injuring 11 people.

In July the previous year Ealing had also been targeted with a bomb attack on the railway line near Ealing Broadway station. The Real IRA were suspected of planting that device.

And on November 3, last year, a car bomb containing around 30kg of home-made explosives was planted in Birmingham city centre but did not fully detonate, with nobody injured.

It was believed that both attacks were linked to the Real IRA or an Irish republican dissident group.

A series of attacks on a postal depot in Hendon, north London, were also blamed on the group.