Autumn and Winter of Murder Planned
Recent bomb attacks by the dissident criminal organisations have demonstrated clearly that they are gaining in terms of engineering and weapons expertise. The reintroduction of the booby trap bomb shows that more disgruntled PIRA members have joined the ranks of the dissidents. The booby trap bomb is easily placed and carries a low risk of capture. The Dissidents have gained a much needed boost to their ego with the organised rioting in the north over recent weeks. Young unemployed and vulnerable people are being eagerly recruited to the ranks of the dissidents. Recent success by the security forces north and south weakened the dissident capacity and it is fair to say that most dissident activity will remain within ghettoised working class areas north and south. However, the dissidents continue to make vast sums of money from smuggling and other forms of criminality and it is in their interest to keep the security services and customs off the back roads of Fermanagh, Tyrone, Armagh and Derry, so we can expect more covert bombs, mortar attacks, booby trap bombs and shooting incidents in these areas.
The dissidents are feverishly trying to get their hands on consignments of guns and explosives from foreign countries; the dissident links with major crime gangs in Dublin, Cork and Limerick is providing some success with the dissidents getting access to semi-automatic weapons. However, commercial explosives are not easily acquired and so the dissidents are heavily dependent on home made explosive devices. The dissidents are determined to cause an explosion in England that determination has been spurned on by the now declared visit to Ireland of Queen Elizabeth of England. The dissidents have been using this summer to get ‘white lilies’ into position in England, most are young and vulnerable and will end up serving long sentences for the crimes of much older and seasoned criminals.
Here at home the dissident ranks have been filled with some experienced Provisional IRA players; this is clear from recent operations and engineering developments. The dissidents have built up a bed rock of support in arrears of north Monaghan, north Louth and Donegal. This support is useful as seen in recent bomb attacks, in Aughnacloy the dissidents were able to travel to Augnacloy, plant a 300lb bomb and within two minutes were burning out their car in Carrickroe in north Monaghan, none of this can happen without support. People remain in ignorance of the role played by the dissident leaders during the negotiations between the British and Sinn Fein/IRA leadership; it is this ignorance that is keeping the dissidents in business. Dissident leaders such as Ruari O’Bradaigh and Michael Mc Kevitt and other lesser figures are telling a new generation that they never done business with the British, however, they have all done business with the British and therefore have no legitimate right or authority to continue their campaign of criminality in the name of the Irish people.
There is no doubt that the dissidents are not being viewed as a significant threat in terms of their ability to break the peace-process, the majority of their activity will continue to be criminality, that criminality will be punctuated by self serving attacks on the security forces, these attacks are a smoke screen to hide the true nature of the criminals who fill the ranks of the Real IRA and Continuity IRA. As the dissidents continue to recruit young and inexperienced people into their ranks it is only a matter of time until we have another mass murder like Omagh. That mass murder could happen in the Republic as bombs are being transported, in the north where they are detonated or in England where the dissidents are intent on causing mayhem.
The vigilance and education of the public about these criminals is paramount to the successful vaporisation of these self serving, sectarian serial killers.
