The real IRA

San Jansson April 21st, 2010

The real IRA (RIRA) is a socialist republican guerilla group that was formed by hardliners who broke out of the provisional IRA when it was clear that the provisionals would go along with the good Friday agreement and subsequently call a ceasefire with the northern Ireland Unionists. (http://irelandsown.net/RIRA.html) The agreement was signed in Belfast in April 1998 and is also referred to as the Belfast Agreement. (http://www.bbc.co.uk/ahistoryoftheworld/objects/nRGYmfUhR1CNZAwL-4DkTw).

The real IRA uses bombs and arms to attack economic and strategic human targets in Britain and northern Ireland in order to disrupt the peace process. The RIRA view the PSNI (Police Service of Northern Ireland) as an integral section of the British Crown Forces and its war machine in Ireland.

On august 15 1998 a bomb detonated in the city center of the Northern Irish town of Omaha. 29 people were killed and 100-300 people were injured (reports vary). The devastating attack was probably a mistake, the target for the bombs was probably supposed to be the courthouse of Omaha targeted as a symbolic target. The courthouse is an economic, administrative, legal, and military center and an attack against it could be identified as an attack on the British presence and rule as a whole.
(http://pdfserve.informaworld.com.ezproxy.ub.gu.se/273597_731377804_713854549.pdf p.9)

The Attack in Omaha resulted in a big loss of popular support for the RIRA. The bomb was widely condemned and caused hostility from Sinn Fein leaders Martin McGuinness and Gerry Adams.

RIRA has also been behind several other attacks including the car bombing of BBC Television Center in west London in June 2001 and the shooting of two soldiers at
Massereene army base in 2009. (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/7934742.stm )

In 2003 Damien Okado-Gough, a reporter for the Derry-based Channel 9 TV news wrote 16 questions for the RIRA. The written reply was received in January 2003 and contains some answers about the RIRA, their goals and the methods of their struggle. Their ultimate objective is the re-establishment of the Republic and they are not interested in discussing the future and their military strategy because it would be self defeating for any guerilla to do so.

”We remain convinced that no just and final political settlement can be arrived at between the Irish people and the people of Britain and between the Nationalist and the Unionist communities until the British military and political presence is totally removed from the equation. It is also important to point out that the political package enshrined in the Belfast agreement had to be acceptable to and ratified by an external political power i.e. the British Government before it was even presented to the Irish people. We regard this as a blatant usurpation of the right of the Irish people to self-determination.”
(http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/othelem/organ/ira/rira280103.htm)

The RIRA belives that it is every Irish persons right to use arms against foreign invaders to claim their independence. The Provisional IRA has claimed that the RIRA have ‘little or no support bas” Their Answer to this question was ”No guerilla can exist without a support base – ours is considerable, certainly sufficient, principled and politically aware. The disillusionment felt in relation to the present political path of the Provisional leadership is clearly evident in the sharp decline in those registering to vote in certain constituencies” They also say that they belive the provisionals ”have gone from revolutionary Republicanism to constitutionalism Nationalism and will eventually take their seats in Westminster.”
(http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/othelem/organ/ira/rira280103.htm)

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