Real IRA appears prime suspect for Ealing bomb

No terrorist organisation has yet claimed responsibility for today’s car bomb in West London but the Real IRA has been the only group which has attacked Britain in recent years.

The Real IRA first came to international prominence in August 1998 with the Omagh bomb which killed 29 people and wounded 200 others.

The atrocity was the worst single incident of the Troubles, killing Protestants, Catholics, people from Northern Ireland, the Irish Republic and Spain.

But despite widespread revulsion at the attack, including condemnation from mainstream republicans like Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness, the hardline terror group managed to remain intact.

Q: Who belongs to the Real IRA?

A: According to defence analysts, the Real IRA is a hardline group of between 70 to 170 members dedicated to an armed campaign aimed at driving the British out of Ireland. Its members see themselves as Irish republican purists, accusing the Provisional IRA of selling short republican ideals.

Q: When was the group formed?

A: The Real IRA emerged out of a row in 1997 over a ceasefire called by the Provisional IRA to get Sinn Fein involved in talks which eventually led to the signing of the Good Friday Agreement.

The dispute came to a head at a convention of Provisional IRA leaders in Gweedore, Co Donegal and led to the resignation of its Quartermaster General.

He left to form the new group and was joined by other disaffected Provisional members.

Q: How is the Real IRA run?

A: The Real IRA follows the same embryonic command structure as the Provisionals with an Army Executive and Council, with the former Quartermaster General assuming the role of Chief of Staff in the new organisation.

Q: Where are their strongholds?

A: The Real IRA made its biggest inroads into the Provisionals’ Southern Command in the Irish Republic, with Janes’ Intelligence Review reporting in October 1998 that up to 30 experienced Provisional IRA operators had joined its ranks.

Concentrated in border counties like Louth in the Irish Republic, the group drew support north of the border in areas like South Armagh and have made their presence felt in other parts of Northern Ireland in west Belfast and Newry.

The group is also believed to have recruited top Provisional bomb makers in Dublin, Monaghan and South Armagh. But it also succeeded in bringing new faces into its ranks.

The Provisional IRA continues to command more support in republican areas than the dissident group but there are concerns that the longer the Northern Ireland peace process remains deadlocked, the more support the dissidents will attract.

Q: What has the Real IRA been involved in?

A: The organisation has continued the Provisionals’ pre-ceasefire tactic of bomb attacks on security and commercial targets but the latter backfired badly in 1998 with the Omagh atrocity.

The Real IRA was forced to declare a ceasefire in the wake of Omagh. But despite overwhelming public anger, it managed to survive.

As the peace process stumbled in the wake of the power sharing executive’s formation in December 1999, the Real IRA has managed to re-establish itself and has returned with attacks in Northern Ireland and London designed to destablise the peace process.

Up until the attack on BBC Television Centre in March, its most daring attack was on the MI6 building last September.

The organisation has sought to fund its activities and the procurement of its weapons through armed robberies.

Q: How well equipped is the Real IRA?

A: The group has sought to purchase weapons from Eastern Europe and in particular, the Balkans with funds raised at home and in the United States. It has also sought support from Libya.

However, the Real IRA is also believed to be in possession of Provisional IRA weapons.

Q: Does the Real IRA have a political wing?

A: The 32 County Sovereignty Committee shares the same political philosophy of the Real IRA, even if its members deny it is the political wing of the dissident terror group.

Leading figures in the group include Bernadette Sands McKevitt, a sister of the IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands and Francie Mackey, a former Sinn Fein councillor in Omagh.

The group’s US fund raiser is New York lawyer Martin Galvin, who was once a prominent figure in Noraid which raised money for Sinn Fein and IRA prisoners at the height of the Troubles.