Michael McKevitt

Michael "Mickey" McKevitt (born September 4, 1949 in Dundalk , County Louth , Ireland ; † January 2, 2021 in Dublin ) was a quartermaster general and executive member of the Provisional IRA and founder and chief of staff of the split-off faction Real IRA .

Life

Beginnings and advancement in the Provisional IRA

Michael McKevitt joined the Provisional IRA in the early 1970s. Due to his strategic and organizational talent, he quickly rose to Quartermaster of the Northern Command and, in the early 1980s, Quartermaster General of Provisionals. As such, he is said to have been in control of the organization's weapons hiding places for a decade and a half and to have organized the transfer of weapons, explosives and ammunition across the inner-Irish border. His marriage to the sister of legendary IRA member Bobby Sands cemented his position within the organization. In addition, he was one of the twelve members of the IRA executive that, along with the Military Council under Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness, formed the executive level of the Provisional IRA.

According to informants and other statements, he was involved in a leading position in the Kingsmill massacre in 1976 and the Warrenpoint attack in 1979 with a total of 28 deaths, as well as in the embarkation of weapons and explosives from Libya .

Inconsistencies in the leadership and secession of the Real IRA

After the declaration of a ceasefire in July 1997, disagreements arose between the military council and the executive branch within the management level of the Provisionals. While the Military Council approved the British-Irish Mitchell Principles on participation in talks on the future of the region, the Executive, under its spokesman Michael McKevitt, rejected the proposal as incompatible with the IRA's principles.

In October 1997 there was another General Army Convention in County Donegal, Ireland , at which Gerry Adams was able to win most of the leadership for the peace process. Thereupon Michael McKevitt split off from the organization and founded the Real IRA with other traditionalists, which according to various statements should have comprised between 30 and 200 people and was able to fall back on a large part of the weapons stocks of the Provisionals. The Real IRA then pooled its resources with the republican associations Continuity IRA and INLA , which also rejected the peace process. McKevitt's wife headed the Real IRA's political arm.

Until the summer of 1998, the three organizations tried to undermine the peace process by continuing acts of violence. The Real IRA is said to have been responsible for several mortar attacks on security barracks and eight car bomb attacks in Counties Down , Armagh and Tyrone in Northern Ireland . Telephone warnings were issued prior to all car bomb attacks to target only material targets and not hit civilians. The Omagh car bomb attack in August 1998 , around four months after the Good Friday Agreement to end the Northern Ireland conflict was signed, resulted in the deaths of 29 civilians and two unborn babies despite warnings and an evacuation initiated. More than 200 people were injured. It was the single attack with the highest number of victims in the Northern Ireland conflict and aroused great outrage and rejection in the public and among all parties to the conflict.

Arrest, conviction and civil litigation

The Omagh car bomb subsequently accelerated the peace process in Northern Ireland. It was only three days after the event that the Real IRA confessed to the attack and regretted the loss of life, but blamed the security authorities for the many victims. The INLA announced a ceasefire on August 22nd and the Real IRA on September 7th.

Michael McKevitt was arrested in March 2001 and became the first Irish citizen to be charged under the new anti-terror law passed in response to the Omagh attack. In August 2003 he was sentenced by the Special Court of Ireland to a total of 20 years imprisonment for membership in a criminal organization and terrorism practice. Important statements had come from an informant who had infiltrated the Real IRA on behalf of MI5 and FBI .

He was serving his sentence in Irish maximum security Portlaoise Prison . He developed cancer while in custody and had an operation in 2015. He was released at Easter 2016.

For the first time, a terrorist organization, the Real IRA, was found liable in a civil litigation. As a result, members of this organization could be sentenced to pay damages. In June 2009 McKevitt and three other defendants were sentenced to pay £ 1.6m in damages . His long-term challenges to the judgment failed, most recently in September 2016 at the European Court of Justice .

literature

• John Mooney, Michael O'Toole: Black Operations: The Secret War Against the Real IRA. Maverick House, Ashbourne, 2005, ISBN 0-9542945-5-6 .
• Stephen E. Atkins: Encyclopedia of Modern Worldwide Extremists and Extremist Groups. Greenwood Press, Westport (Connecticut), 2004, ISBN 0-313-32485-9 .
• Thomas G. Mitchell, When Peace Fails: Lessons from Belfast for the Middle East. McFarland, Jefferson (North Carolina), 2010, ISBN 0-7864-4852-0 .

Web links

• Thomas Harding : Real IRA leader is finally brought to justice after three decades of terror. In: telegraph.co.uk . August 7, 2003 (English). 

Individual evidence

1. ^ Former Real IRA leader Michael McKevitt dies following illness. In: Belfast Telegraph. January 2, 2021, accessed January 2, 2021 .