What is the New IRA?

Northern Ireland police suspect a “violent dissident republican” of fatally shooting journalist Lyra McKee in Londonderry, with fingers being pointed at a group calling itself the New IRA. Here are some facts about the organisation.

FORMATION: The New IRA came into being in 2012 following the merger between two groups — the Real IRA and Republican Action Against Drugs (RAAD). The Real IRA was formed in 1997 by dissident members of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) unhappy about the group’s ceasefire that year, preferring to “realise their vision through violence rather than democracy and politics”, according to Gemma Clark, history lecturer at the University of Exeter.

RAAD was a republican vigilante group, focused mainly in Londonderry — also known as Derry —, that targeted suspected drug dealers with “punishment shootings” and pipe bomb attacks.

MAKE UP OF GROUP: Irish authorities believe the group comprises around 200 members.

They include “old-school republicans... people who’ve got training and knowledge in building bombs” and “newer recruits who are young, maybe who might not even have been born when the paramilitary ceasefires happened,” said Clark. The younger recruits “are coming from these very deprived areas like Creggan, where the journalist tragically got shot yesterday”, she added, saying they had become “radicalised by memories of the past.”

AIMS: The group ultimately wants to bring about a united Ireland, putting them in conflict with Protestants of British descent who want the province of Northern Ireland to remain under British control.

ACTIVITIES: The group has been behind a number of gun and bomb attacks on British forces, gangland figures, prison officers and police, and has ramped up its activity in recent months.

It sent letter bombs to British Army offices in England in 2014, the first republican action in Britain since 2001.

It sent incendiary devices to transport hubs in London in March and is suspected of being behind a car bomb at a Londonderry court in January. It was also blamed for provoking unrest between republicans and police in the city last year.

REPUBLICAN SCHISM: The group’s members are disillusioned by the republican movement’s leaders, including Gerry Adams, former leader of political party Sinn Fein, who believe that a united Ireland is best realised through politics and demographic change within Northern Ireland.

Sinn Fein’s leadership immediately condemned McKee’s murder.

“These so-called dissident groups who took her life offer nothing, only hardship and suffering,” party president Mary Lou McDonald said. “They do not represent the community.” — AFP