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Mounting fears that IRA dissident groups planning major atrocity to wreck peace deal

Continuity IRA and Real IRA step up recruitment in bid to smash peace

By
KENNETH HAYNES
,
IrishCentral.com

Published Thursday, November 5, 2009, 10:24 AM
Updated Friday, November 6, 2009, 9:14 AM

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Mounting fears that IRA dissident groups planning major atrocity to wreck peace deal | Irish News | IrishCentral




Read more: Northern Ireland, Northern Ireland Conflict, Political Dissent, Politics, War and Conflict, Irish Republican Army, Independent Monitoring Commission, Peacekeeping and Security, Richard Kerr, Central Intelligence Agency
Security fears: Both the Continuity IRA and the Real IRA have stepped up recruitment and are getting advice from veterans of the Provisional IRA
Security fears: Both the Continuity IRA and the Real IRA have stepped up recruitment and are getting advice from veterans of the Provisional IRA

IRA dissidents - backed by IRA veterans - now pose a major threat to peace in Northern Ireland.

That's according to the Independent Monitoring Commission which says the security threat is the highest since the 1996 Good Friday Peace Agreement.

There are mounting fears that the dissident groups are planning a major atrocity to wreck peace deal.

There has been a surge of violence in the North since March. Two British soldiers and a PSNI police officer have been shot dead and there has been a spate of failed bomb attempts on security forces.

An informed source said: "The fact is that the dissident groups are becoming more desperate the more the peace process continues to move forward.

"We have moved beyond the politics of the last atrocity. The only thing that will bring them back is if the process stalls completely and a political vacuum emerges."

Meanwhile, the commission says 20 people have been injured in shootings aimed at dissuading Catholics from co-operating with the security forces.

The commission says the dissidents hope to sabotage the transfer of Northern Ireland's justice system to the Northern Assembly this year.

The violence "is an attack on the peaceful political approach adopted by Sinn Fein and is designed to affect policing and to raise public fears about security," it said.

The commission, which includes former CIA director Richard Kerr, says both the Real IRA and Continuity IRA, have upped their recruitment, training and weapons smuggling since March.

"The seriousness, range and tempo of their activities all changed for the worse in these six months," they wrote.

And they said the worst threat came from veterans of the Provisional IRA who are training these new recruits in spite of the Provisionals' 2005 decision to disarm.

"The majority of new recruits are inexperienced young males," the commission said. "There are however now indications that former republican terrorists have, as individuals, provided services in some instances to dissident republican groups, which even if occasional can significantly add to the threat."

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Mounting fears that IRA dissident groups planning major atrocity to wreck peace deal | Irish News | IrishCentral


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Posted by plasticpaddy on November 10,2009 | 02:03PM
It should be noted that the DUP is a unionist and not a loyalist organisation. Unionists = wish to see the continuation of the Act of Union, whereas Loyalists are extremists (for lack of a better word) from the working class sectionn of Protestant Northern Ireland who remain loyal to the crown.
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Posted by michaelpthompson on November 9,2009 | 06:46PM
Too bad most of the world fails to notice loyalist groups such as the DUP trying to wreck the peace process by constantly adding more and more preconditions to implementation of the Good Friday Agreement, which they apparently signed in bad faith. The Irish and the Brits seem to be able to get along, including nationalists, but the loyalist parties can't stand the idea of Catholics having any influence at all in their country. http://www.iais.org/shtmp.cfm?News_ID=5665
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Posted by plasticpaddy on November 8,2009 | 10:48AM
Agreed Sparklet!
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Posted by Sparklet on November 7,2009 | 04:54AM
I hope the peace process continues. I'm a Brit, but I love Ireland with a passion. When visiting there, I've been met with nothing but kindness and friendliness. I feel more at home there than I do in England, and I hate what my country has been responsible for in the past. However, I'm more realistic now and just don't want to see more innocent people maimed or killed.
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Posted by plasticpaddy on November 6,2009 | 09:22AM
look up the word dissident. You will then see why they are referred to as such. They are the republicans in the minority and as such are dissenting form the viewpoi9nt of the majority of republicans, that is why they are called 'Dissidents'. Really a matter of the English language and not as political as you might imagine clevelander.
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Posted by clevelander on November 6,2009 | 08:01AM
I love the way people use the word "Dissident" to describe people like Republican Sinn Fein or other true Republican Groups. I say it's the Provos and there followers are the "Dissidents".


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