Dissidents

Why ‘Dissident’ Republicans have no legitimacy

In 1986 when Ruiri O Bradaigh lead a splinter group of republicans away from the main body of Provisional Sinn Fein/IRA, he done so not because of policy shift in relation to abstentionism but rather in relation to power shift. Adams and Mc Guinness made no secret of their intention to take the power base of the republican movement to the north and shift the old guard lead by O Bradaigh out of power. O Bradaigh set up Republican Sinn Fein which is nothing more than a talking shop for old men who have lived in relative comfort far from the northern conflict for decades. O Bradaigh also masterminded the creation of Continuity IRA, however, it is only in recent times that Continuity have begun to cut their paramilitary teeth as their ranks have been swelled by former members of the Provisional IRA. In 1996 the CIRA exploded a 1,200lb bomb at a hotel in Fermanagh however this was the work of a small team based in rural Monaghan. O Bradiagh’s bluff about walking away from the main stream Sinn Fein/IRA organisation over abstentionism is easily exposed as Republican Sinn Fein have taken seats in the Republic when they can get someone elected to an urban or county council.

In November 1997 both Kevin Mc Kenna and Michael Mc Kevitt resigned their positions on the Provisional IRA Army Council. Kevin Mc Kenna who said in 1994, “As long as the lads with the balaclavas are there to keep an eye on things I am happy to go along with it”, Mc Kenna was talking about the talks between Mc Guinness/Adams and the British Government. However, in 1997 Mc Kenna decided he could no longer be part of the Sinn Fein/IRA organisation. There is no evidence to suggest that Mc Kenna went with the dissidents but that he has simply settled into retirement in County Monaghan. Michael Mc Kevitt on the other hand who had been the Provisional IRA’s Quarter Master General would form the Real IRA. Mc Kevitt was in a position to take personnel, weapons and explosives with him. While the Provisional IRA has a long standing policy of executing anyone who misuses their personnel or weapons Mc Kevitt was given a free hand. The political mouth-piece for the Real IRA would be the, 32 County Sovereignty Committee.

From a republican perspective neither the Continuity IRA nor the Real IRA has any legitimacy. O Bradaigh for his part was happy to engage with the British Government when it suited his egotistical journey; he further split the republican movement over personal rather than long term political motivations. Michael Mc Kevitt was on the IRA Army Council while Martin Mc Guinness was having secret meetings with M16, Mc Kevitt was party to the surrender of militant republicanism and he was further party to the mass executions of Irish Republicans in the border counties due to the IRA leadership’s duplicity (http://theirishobserver.blogspot.com/2010/04/loughgall-murdered-by-republicans.html).

The journey of the Adams/Mc Guinness leadership is no different; however, Provisional Sinn Fein/IRA has now openly accepted their role as constitutional politicians in both the partitionist Assembly at Stormont and Dail Eireann in the Republic. The many failures of the Mc Guinness/Adams leadership, including their dishonesty and duplicity leave them with some burden in relation to the creation of the modern day ‘dissidents’. There is a very clear school of thought within Irish republicanism which suggests that Michael Mc Kevitt was given a free hand by the Provisonal IRA leadership as that leadership believed that low key dissident shootings and bombings would help focus the minds of the Unionists, The British Government and the Irish Government.

The Omagh bomb in August 1998 left the Provisional IRA leadership red faced as they realised the futility and recklessness of allowing Mc Kevitt to walk away with their semtex. However, it was too late, already Slab Murphy and others who may have had influence at one time, had lost that influence on the ‘dissident’ groupings. Even Martin Mc Guinness was given short shift when he went to south Armagh to try and gain some influence. However, while Omagh was a spectacular own goal for both the ‘dissidents’ and the PIRA leadership who had let them walk away with their semtex, the dissidents simply regrouped and lived to fight another day. Recent dissident attacks on the home of Sinn Fein MP Conor Murphy and other Sinn Fein/IRA members shows that the dissidents have taken on a new life form.

The Real IRA (now split but focused), Continuity IRA, INLA and many former members of the PIRA now make up the ranks of the ‘dissident’ threat. The recent killings of two soldiers at Massereene army base in 2009, the killing of PSNI officer Stephen Carroll in March 2009 shows clearly that the ‘dissident’ threat what ever its origins is prepared to continue with a futile, flawed and mainly egotistically driven campaign of cowardly attacks. The ‘dissident’ threat is driven in most instances by self serving and criminal enterprise. The recent emergence of the Irish Republican Liberation Army is described by the International Monitoring Committee as, “essentially a group of criminals taking a republican banner in order give supposed status to their activities”. Many dissidents have been imprisoned on the Island of Ireland for criminal activities ranging from extortion from lap dancing clubs to drug dealing. However, like the Provisional IRA/Sinn Fein before them these criminal dissidents will use the smoke of attacking anti-social elements to hide their own criminal intent.


There is no doubt that the dissident threat is presently higher than it has been for many years, all of the various parts making up the whole of the dissident threat are now working closely together. In the working/underclass areas where these bandits operate little or nothing has changed for the ordinary people as a result of the ‘peace dividend’ and so the waters in which sectarian/criminality swims have never gone away. The security services lead by M15 have disrupted many dissident operations in recent months, however, they only have to get lucky once. The recent car bomb attack on Palace Barracks, in Hollywood which is also the HQ of M15 on the 12th of April to coincide with the transfer of policing and justice powers from Westminster to Stormont show that the dissident threat is one that is coordinated and determined, what ever its motivation. This bomb made up of approximately 100/20 lbs of homemade explosives was brought to Belfast and then placed in a hi-jacked taxi.

The dissidents have not strayed far from the path of their PIRA counterparts, the bomb makers are based in small rural locations mainly in counties, Louth, Armagh and Fermanagh. The personnel may have a different name tag now but they were mainly born out of the PIRA, some new blood has and is being recruited and this accounts for a number of botched operations. Today as the smoke clears after a car bomb exploded outside another Police station, it is clear that the present intention is to focus the dissident threat on causing discomfort for Sinn Fein during the election campaign in the north.

The ‘dissidents’ have also recently killed 31 year old Kieran Doherty who was a member of their organisation in Derry, Doherty had been found operating a major drug dealing operation in County Donegal. It is not clear if Doherty was killed because he was operating an enterprise outside of the control of the Real IRA in Derry or because he was an actual drug dealer. Doherty had been running a drug dealing operation from a house belonging to another senior dissident Seamus Mc Greevy, who was based in Meath. Seamus Mc Creevy hanged himself on January 31st 2010. In October 2009 another senior dissident John Brady took his own life while being held at Strand Road PSNI station.

So it is that there is much confusion and uncertainty within the dissident family. Their present tactic of causing discomfort to Sinn Fein and uncertainty for the Assembly at Stormont appears short sighted and counter productive. However, short sightedness is something the republican movement have never been short off. It is most lightly that when as expected a Unionist MP is returned to Fermanagh/South Tyrone following the present election campaign the dissidents will want to mark this event with a spectacular in Tyrone or Fermanagh, as this week also marks the 29th Anniversary of the death of Bobby Sands and the 23rd Anniversary of the killing of 8 IRA members at Loughgall.