The ‘Real’ IRA and other organisations have ramped up attacks and the director-general of MI5 claims the threat posed by dissidents has been underestimated. Although many incidents have gone unreported in the south, attacks have numbered in the hundreds in the last three years. Here are some of the most high-profile of them.
By Robert Carry
November 2007 Two RIRA members shoot an off-duty PSNI officer as he sits in his car on Bishop Street in Derry, causing injuries to his face and arm. Days later, another PSNI member is shot and injured by RIRA members in Dungannon, County Tyrone.
February 2008 The RIRA promises to launch a new offensive against “legitimate targets”.
May 2008 The RIRA seriously injures a member of the PSNI when a booby trap bomb detonates under his car near Spamount, County Tyrone.
September 2008 The RIRA shoot a man in the neck in St Johnston, near the Derry border. The same man was targeted in a pipe bomb attack on his home on 25 October.
February 2009 The Real IRA claims responsibility for murdering Ciaran Doherty, who was found dumped at a roadside outside Derry City. The group claims he was involved in drug dealing while a member of the organisation.
March 2009 A RIRA unit attacks a group of four British soldiers outside Massereene Barracks. Two soldiers are killed and the other two left injured. Two pizza deliverymen are also hurt. Two days after the Massereene Barracks shooting, PSNI officer Stephen Carroll is shot dead by a sniper in Craigavon, County Armagh. This time, the Continuity IRA claims responsibility.
April 2009 The RIRA in Derry claimed responsibility for carrying out a punishment shooting against a convicted rapist who was awaiting sentencing for raping a 15 year old girl. The attack is one of dozens the group has carried out over the past two years.
July 2009 The RIRA is blamed for orchestrating rioting in the Ardoyne area of Belfast as an Apprentice Boys parade passes. Over 100 PSNI officers are injured as shots, explosive devices and missiles are fired at police.
August 2009 The Real IRA takes over the town of Meigh in South Armagh. A police car accidentally drives into a roadblock manned by eight men with AK47s and a rocket launcher, who are stopping traffic and handing out leaflets telling locals not to co-operate with British authorities, the PSNI or Sinn Fein. The police car flees the area.
September 2009 Republicans lay a 600lb landmine near Forkhill in South Armagh with a detonating wire running into the Republic. The device is later defused.
October 2009 Real IRA member John Brady dies in custody. Before his funeral, a group of uniformed gunmen appear and fire a volley of shots over his coffin as it sits outside his home on the Drumrallagh estate in Strabane. Hundreds of mourners clap and cheer after the shots, while a police helicopter hovers above.
November 2009 A 400lb car pound bomb partially detonates after being driven through a barrier at PSNI Headquarters in Belfast. The occupants flee on foot. Police foil an attempt to kill a Catholic PSNI recruit in Co Fermanagh and two men, one a reserve in the Irish Defence Forces, are charged with attempted murder. A horizontal mortar is made safe by Army bomb experts in Armagh. PSNI describe the device as viable, and claim it was an attempt to kill police.
January 2010 Republicans kill a convicted heroin dealer in Cork and threaten other dealers in the city. Later this month a PSNI officer is badly injured when a car bomb detonates under his vehicle in Randalstown, Co Antrim. His leg is later amputated. The Real IRA also attacks Crossmaglen and Bessbrook PSNI stations, firing shots in both incidents.
February 2010 A 250lb Real IRA car bomb explodes outside the courthouse in Newry. A phone warning is called in ahead of the attack and no one is injured. The building, however, suffers damage. Later this month Real IRA members throw a pipe-bomb at a police station in North Belfast and a mortar bomb is abandoned near Keady PSNI station in Armagh.
March 2010 The Real IRA in south Armagh fires on PSNI officers as they attend the spot where a suspicious object has been left on the Belfast-Dublin train line. The organisation then brings Belfast and Derry to a standstill by hijacking vehicles and calling in bomb hoaxes.
April 2010 The Real IRA carries out a car bomb attack on M15 Headquarters in County Down, less than half an hour after policing and justice powers are finally devolved to Stormont.
May 2010 Hundreds turn out for a protest in support of republicans jailed in Maghaberry prison amid claims that the prisoners are being mistreated and kept in poor conditions.
September 2010 The Real IRA, in an interview with The Guardian, warns that they may target British banks and bankers. The group’s written statement reads, ‘Most people can see the picture: the bankers grease the politicians’ palms, the politicians bail out the bankers with public funds, the bankers pay themselves fat bonuses and loan the money back to the public with interest. It’s essentially a crime spree that benefits a social elite at the expense of many millions of victims.’
The Real IRA has carried out more than 30 attacks on ‘national security targets’ since the start of 2010. This compares to 20 for all of 2009.
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