Real Irish Republican Army

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The Real Irish Republican Army ('True Irish Republican Army'; Irish Óglaigh na hÉireann , an Fíor-IRA ; RIRA ; also known as Reals or True IRA ) is a terrorist paramilitary organization that seeks a united Ireland. The RIRA was founded in 1997 after a split in the Provisional Irish Republican Army . It is an illegal organization in the Republic of Ireland and is run as a terrorist organization in the United Kingdom , the European Union and the United States .

The RIRA sees itself as a direct continuation of the Irish Republican Army (IRA, the Army of the Irish Republic - 1919-1921), which fought for the independence of Ireland in the Irish War of Independence. Like all other organizations that call themselves the IRA, the Real's exhibit in public announcements and internally Óglaigh na hÉireann (Irish Volunteers) made, but wear this Irish title, the Irish Armed Forces ( Irish Defense Forces ). Since 1997, the fight Reals that the Good Friday Agreement refuse the Northern Ireland conflict against the British Army , the Northern Irish police and Unionist militias. In 2012, a large part of the Real IRA joined forces with other groups to form the New IRA .

origin

IRA General Army Convention 1997

The split in the IRA announced on the General Army Convention to, a secret meeting in the autumn of 1997 Falcarragh , County Donegal , was held and in which the attitude of the IRA and Sinn Fein in relation to the peace process soon after the Good Friday Agreement should lead should be decided. At the gathering, then- IRA Quartermaster General , Michael McKevitt , who was also a member of the twelve-person IRA Executive, publicly denounced the leadership and called on the group to end the ceasefire and end participation in the Northern Ireland peace process. He was assisted in this by his wife, Bernadette Sands-McKevitt, who was also a member of the IRA Executive. The couple have been maneuvered and isolated from the rest of the leadership by including a. a key ally of the two, Kevin McKenna, the then IRA chief of staff , was elected from the Army Council. Therefore, at this meeting of the leading activists of the underground organization, Gerry Adams managed to win the vast majority of those present for a permanent ceasefire. The IRA had been inactive for several months at this point; however, the IRA leadership long shied away from declaring an official ceasefire, as during the ceasefire from 1975 to early 1976 the continued intelligence efforts of the British secret services brought the organization to the brink of extinction.

The Real IRA is split off

On October 26, 1997, McKevitt and Sands-McKevitt resigned from the IRA Executive with a number of other members. In November 1997, McKevitt and other IRA dissidents got together for a secret meeting on a farm in Oldcastle, County Meath , and a new organization called Óglaigh na hÉireann was formed. The organization mainly attracted renegade Provisionals from the Irish Republican strongholds of South Armagh and Derry . However, former IRA members from Dublin , Belfast , Limerick , Tipperary , County Louth , County Tyrone and County Monaghan also entered.

aims

The main goal of the RIRA is a unified, Catholic Ireland, which is to be achieved with the continued armed struggle against the British security forces, which at some point will force a British withdrawal from Northern Ireland. The organization rejects the Mitchell Principles and the Good Friday Agreement. She declares the path to pacify the province and the abolition of the division of the island through political struggle alone as a betrayal of the republican ideals and an admission of defeat towards Great Britain, as does the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921, which led to the division of Ireland. Sands-McKevitt, who is a sister of Bobby Sands who died on hunger strike and was a founding member of the 32 County Sovereignty Movement , said in an interview that “Bobby did not die for cross-border institutions. He did not die for nationalists to be equal British citizens in a Northern Irish state ”. The RIRA uses approaches similar to that used by the Provisional IRA in the 1990s: it mainly uses bombings in city centers to damage the economic infrastructure of Northern Ireland. The organization is also trying to kill members of the security forces with landmines , homemade mortars and car bombs . For targets on Great Britain, she uses incendiary and car bombs to spread terror and destruction.

Structure and status

The RIRA has a command structure similar to that of the Provisional IRA. There is an Army Council of seven made up of a Chief of Staff, Quartermaster General, Director of Training, Director of Operations, Director of Finance, Director of Publicity and the Adjutant General. The normal members operate in small cells so that the organization is not endangered by informants. In June 2005, then Irish Justice Minister Michael McDowell told the Dáil Éireann that the organization had a maximum of 150 active members. The political arm of the Real IRA is the 32 County Sovereignty Movement (formerly 32 County Sovereignty Committee), which is currently led by Francis Mackey. The RIRA is independent of the Continuity IRA , another splinter group of the Provisional IRA (founded in 1986). However, it is known that both groups cooperate with each other at the local level. The Provisional IRA is hostile to the RIRA and issued threats against RIRA members. In October 2000, she was blamed by the victim's family and 32 County Sovereignty Movement member Marian Price for the shooting of Belfast RIRA member Joe O'Connor.

The RIRA is an illegal organization under British (Section 11 (1) of the Terrorism Act of 2000) and Irish law due to the use of the 'IRA' in the group name. Membership in the organization can be punished with ten years in prison under UK law. In 2001 the US added the RIRA to the list of foreign terrorist groups. This makes it illegal for Americans to materially support the RIRA. This also means that the US authorities can freeze accounts of the group and deny alleged members of the RIRA visas for the USA. In July 2012, the RIRA announced that it wanted to form a New Irish Republican Army . In addition to their own organization, the Republican Action Against Drugs (RAAD), members of IRA splinter groups as well as apostate Provisionals are supposed to join forces under a single command. According to their own statements, this would enable them to put more pressure on the British security forces with several hundred armed volunteers. The RAAD (a criminal vigilante group from Derry ) and the RIRA would then no longer act as independent forces. The rival Continuity IRA did not join the New IRA .

Armament

The traditional main task of the Quartermaster General (Supreme Quartermaster) is the supervision of the weapons arsenal of the IRA. During the formation of the faction, McKevitt used his experience and diverted part of the IRA's arsenal. These included the plastic explosives Semtex , Uzis , AK-47 assault rifles , Armalite and M16 rifles, handguns, detonators and time fuses. A number of bomb experts from the IRA are also said to have joined the organization. This gave the RIRA the ability to use explosives and mortars, such as B. the Mark 15 mortar (Barrack buster), which can fire an 80-100 kg grenade, to make yourself.

In 1999 the organization added weapons imported from Croatia to its equipment. The delivery included the TM500 military explosives, Sa-23 submachine guns, modified AK-47 assault rifles, and RPG-18 and RPG-22 rocket launchers. In July 2000, the RIRA attempted to smuggle a second load of arms out of Croatia. However, this was previously secured by the Croatian police. The load contained seven RPG-18s, several dozen AK-47 assault rifles, detonators, ammunition and 20 packs of TM500.

In 2001, RIRA members traveled to the Slovak Republic to purchase weapons. The men tried to buy 5 tons of plastic explosives, 2,000 detonators, 500 small arms, 200 bazookas, and remote-controlled guided missiles and sniper rifles. However, with the help of MI5, they were arrested and extradited to the United Kingdom, where they were found guilty and sentenced to 30 years in prison. Several weapons could still be smuggled in: Parts of these supplies were seized in Northern Ireland by the police and the British army.

In June 2006, the PSNI carried out a series of arrests after the RIRA attempted to bring Semtex, C-4 plastic explosives, SAM7 anti-aircraft missiles , AK-47 assault rifles, grenade launchers, heavy machine guns, sniper rifles, silenced pistols, anti-tank missiles and detonators from France to get.

attacks

(incomplete list of known attacks)

The organization is responsible for a number of attacks in Northern Ireland and England.

  • August 15, 1998 : The Omagh bombing killed 29 people.
  • March 7, 2009: The "True IRA" claimed responsibility for an attack in which two British soldiers were killed in a barracks near Belfast, County Antrim. The attackers followed a pizza delivery boy as camouflage, and other soldiers and civilians were seriously injured in the exchange of fire. The letter of confession to a daily newspaper in Dublin allowed an unambiguous verification . IRA dissidents have long tried to destabilize the advancing peace process in Northern Ireland and the all-party government through attacks.
  • April 12, 2010: A hijacked taxi with an IED was detonated outside a UK barracks in County Down, injuring one person. The building is also home to a division of the Domestic Security Service (MI 5).
  • April 2, 2011: A 25-year-old policeman was killed in a bomb attack in the Northern Irish town of Omagh. The explosive device exploded under the car of one of his family members.
  • July 27, 2012: RIRA fighters fired grenade launchers and machine guns at a PSNI Landrover in Belfast, slightly injuring the occupants.
  • November 1, 2012: Members of the New IRA shot dead guard David Black on his way to Maghaberry maximum security prison. It was the first murder since the New IRA was formed .
  • January 19, 2019: A car bomb exploded in front of the courthouse in the Northern Irish town of Derry ; People were not harmed. The following day, the British police arrested two suspected perpetrators and blamed either the RIRA or the New IRA , which split from the RIRA in 2012, for the attack.
  • April 18, 2019: The journalist Lyra McKee was shot in serious rioting with police officers in the Northern Irish city of Derry and then died in hospital. The New IRA claimed responsibility for the attack.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Common Position 2009/468 / CFSP of the Council of 15 June 2009 updating Common Position 2001/931 / CFSP on the application of specific measures to combat terrorism and repealing Common Position 2009/67 / CFSP
  2. ↑ Toby Harnden: Bandit Country . Hodder & Stoughton, 1999, ISBN 0-340-71736-X , pp. 429-431 .
  3. ^ Richard Deutsch: Armed Struggle: The History of the IRA . Pan Books, 2003, ISBN 0-330-49388-4 , pp. 296 .
  4. ^ John Mooney, Michael O'Toole: Black Operations: The Secret War Against the Real IRA . Maverick House, 2004, ISBN 0-9542945-9-9 , pp. 33 .
  5. ↑ Mooney & O'Toole, pp. 38-39.
  6. ^ Mooney & O'Toole, p. 47.
  7. ↑ 'Real' Irish Republican Army (rIRA) statement . CAIN. January 28, 2003. Retrieved May 9, 2007.
  8. ↑ English, pp. 316-317.
  9. ↑ a b c Sean Boyne: The Real IRA: after Omagh, what now? Paramilitary tactics of the RIRA. In: Jane's . IHS Global Limited, August 24, 1998, archived from the original on March 1, 2010 ; Retrieved April 8, 2020 (UK English).
  10. ↑ Mooney & O'Toole, pp. 40-45.
  11. ↑ Parliamentary Debates (Official Report - Unrevised) Dáil Éireann Thursday 23 June 2005 - Page 1 . Office of the Houses of the Oireachtas. June 23, 2005. Retrieved May 3, 2007.
  12. ↑ Nicholas Watt: Bombers widen the republican divide . The Guardian . April 16, 2001. Retrieved May 4, 2007.
  13. ↑ Independent Monitoring Commission (Ed.): Eighth report of the Independent Monitoring Commission . The Stationery Office, February 1, 2006, p. 13 ( PDF, online [accessed May 6, 2007]).
  14. ↑ John Mullin: Shots fired at funeral of Real IRA man . The Guardian . October 19, 2000. Retrieved May 3, 2007.
  15. ^ English, pp. 320-321.
  16. ↑ SI No. 162/1939 - Unlawful Organization (Suppression) Order, 1939. In: ISB. Government of Ireland , June 23, 1939; accessed December 11, 2018 (British English).
  17. ↑ Kate O'Hanlon: Membership of Real IRA was a terrorism open . The Independent . May 25, 2005. Retrieved May 3, 2007.
  18. ^ House of Commons Hansard Debates for 30 Oct 2002 (pt 8) . House of Commons. October 30, 2002. Retrieved March 17, 2007.
  19. ↑ US brands Real IRA 'terrorists' . BBC. May 16, 2001. Retrieved May 5, 2007.
  20. ↑ Florian Osuch: New escalation in Northern Ireland? . Young world . July 30, 2012. Retrieved July 30, 2012.
  21. ^ Henry McDonald: Republican dissidents join forces to form a new IRA . The Guardian . July 27, 2012. Retrieved July 27, 2012.
  22. ↑ Boyne, pp. 382-383.
  23. ^ Mooney & O'Toole, p. 321.
  24. ^ Mooney & O'Toole, p. 183.
  25. ↑ Boyne, p. 440.
  26. ^ Richard Norton-Taylor: 30 years in jail for Real IRA trio . The Guardian . May 8, 2002. Retrieved June 28, 2007.
  27. ↑ Boyne, p. 390.
  28. ↑ Man in court on 'Real IRA' charge . BBC. June 24, 2006. Retrieved June 28, 2007.
  29. ↑ Real IRA was behind army attack . BBC. March 8, 2009. Retrieved March 8, 2009.
  30. ↑ Dead British soldiers: IRA splinter group confesses to attack . In: Spiegel Online . March 8, 2009 ( spiegel.de [accessed January 22, 2019]).
  31. ↑ FOCUS Online: Bomb attack on British intelligence headquarters. Retrieved January 22, 2019 .
  32. ↑ Irish Republican News: ONH claims rocket attack. In: Irish Republican News. Irish Republican News, August 3, 2012, accessed January 22, 2019 .
  33. ↑ New IRA confesses to first murder in Northern Ireland. world;
  34. ↑ Four arrested over 'reckless' Derry bomb . January 20, 2019 ( bbc.com [accessed January 22, 2019]).
  35. ↑ Northern Ireland: Police arrest 57-year-old woman after killing journalist - SPIEGEL ONLINE. Retrieved April 23, 2019 .