They haven't gone away you know.....

[randomtask]

Republican dissidents join forces to form a new IRA

Three of the four main dissident republican terror groups in Northern Ireland are to merge and reclaim the banner of the IRA, in a major escalation of attempts to destabilise power sharing.

The Real IRA has been joined by Republican Action Against Drugs, which has been running a violent vigilante campaign in Derry, and a loose coalition of independent armed republican groups – leaving only the Continuity IRA outside the group.

In a statement released to the Guardian, the new organisation claimed it had formed a "unified structure, under a single leadership". It said the organisation would be "subservient to the constitution of the Irish Republican Army".

This is the first time since the 1998 Good Friday Agreement that a majority of the forces of dissident republicanism has coalesced.

Republican sources have told the Guardian that the new paramilitary force includes several hundred armed dissidents, including some former members of the now disbanded Provisional IRA who have been conducting a campaign of shooting and forcible exiling of men in Derry City, whom they accuse of drug dealing.

It also includes what the statement described as "non-conformist republicans" – smaller independent groups from Belfast and rural parts of Northern Ireland.

Republican Action Against Drugs and the Real IRA will now cease to exist, one source close to the dissidents said.

The new organisation is planning to intensify terror attacks on the security forces and other targets related to what it regards as symbols of the British presence, according to the source.

Such targets could include police stations, the regional headquarters of Ulster Bank and the UK City of Culture 2013 celebration in Derry – which the dissidents have described as "normalising British rule".

In its statement, the new group said: "In recent years the establishment of a free and independent Ireland has suffered setbacks due to the failure among the leadership of Irish nationalism and fractures within republicanism" – a reference to the divisions between hardline republicans opposed to the peace settlement and Sinn Féin which has followed a political strategy. Martin McGuinness of Sinn Féin, Northern Ireland's deputy first minister, was a leading figure in the Provisional IRA.

In a clear dig at Sinn Féin's participation in the power-sharing executive with unionists, the dissidents' statement said: "The Irish people have been sold a phoney peace, rubber-stamped by a token legislature in Stormont."

It said that the "necessity of armed struggle in pursuit of Irish freedom" against what it described as "the forces of the British crown" would only be avoided by the removal of the British military presence in Northern Ireland. It demanded "an internationally observed timescale that details the dismantling of British political interference in our country".

It also attacked the Northern Ireland secretary, Owen Paterson, over the arrest of several key republican figures, referring to him as an "overlord". "Non-conformist republicans are being subjected to harassment, arrest and violence by the forces of the British crown; others have been interned on the direction of an English overlord. It is Britain, not the IRA, which has chosen provocation and conflict."

It is understood that among the republicans who have joined the new organisation are those responsible for the murder in April 2011 of Constable Ronan Kerr, a Catholic recruit to the police service of Northern Ireland, and the terrorists who targeted Peadar Heffron, another Catholic police officer, who was seriously injured in January 2010 when a bomb exploded inside his car as he was driving to his police station.

The recruitment of Republican Action Against Drugs activists in Derry marks a major step up in the terror campaign in the city. Dozens of former Provisional IRA members have been involved in shooting and intimidating mainly young Catholic men whom they accuse of drug dealing in Derry.

Republican Action Against Drugs' campaign has become notorious around the world since an investigation by the Guardian earlier this year into the wave of shootings and forced expulsions in Northern Ireland's second city.

Republican factions

Until this week there were four separate violent groups opposed to Sinn Féin's peace strategy. As a result of this merger three republican terror groups have become one, reclaiming the banner of the IRA:

The Real IRA was formed out of a split within the Provisional IRA (PIRA) in 1997 and was responsible for the Omagh atrocity a year later.

Republican Action Against Drugs (RAAD) – a group comprising ex-PIRA members whose purpose was to run an armed vigilante campaign against drug dealers. It has agreed to coalesce with other anti-ceasefire republicans.

Independent republican factions – until now an amalgam of terror groups operating in Northern Ireland. They are sometimes referred to collectively as Óglaigh na hÉireann.

Continuity IRA, the fourth republican faction, remains wholly independent.

The adoption of the name IRA is an attempt by the dissident republicans to reclaim from history the title of the movement that dominated republican politics in the 20th century. Since the Irish war of independence there have been several mutations of the IRA from a mass movement of armed fighters in the 1918-1921 Anglo-Irish war to a small band of diehards who conducted the 1958-62 border campaign. Its use has withered since the peace agreement in 1998.

Interesting. Disturbing turn of events? or is this a desperate move to gain resources/man power?

[Eamonnca1]

And there was me thinking people like that were extinct.

[The Iceman]

I would imagine it's much easier for me to be mad about this. To point the finger at people from home. I immediately wondered where the support for these lads comes from, why local communities aren't standing up to them. but then I'm not on the ground there, not exposed to the element of fear I'm sure these thugs foster.
I could probably name half of the boys part of this group from Armagh City - we all know who they are in our towns. They are mostly scumbags if we're honest. Or young lads caught up with the romance of freeing Ireland and a wad of notes in their pockets.....Or both....

[Orior]

To be fair (pun intended) in this current age of austerity it makes sense to merge.

Imagine what they will save on one HR system, one Payroll system, one Finance system and one CRM system. Will it mean job losses too? For example, they only need one Help Desk.

It will be dog eat dog as they jockey for positions, but redundancies will be inevitable.

PWC, Deloitte or Ernest&Young and the like are probably sniffing around the place too.

[ludermor]

I have a mate here in London who works for the police and they had to do a lot of anti terror courses in the lead up to the Olympics, one of the things they were told which shocked me was there are nearly 30 republician terror groups of which around 10 are considered 'live' threats . No idea of the sizes of these group or how they get listed.

[brokencrossbar1]

It was inevitable. The reality is that there are a group od disaffected Republicans who feel the SF have stabbed them in the back. I listened to one a while back. He personally accepts that violence is no longer an option but he said that many like him are disillusioned to the extreme about the current set up. Men who lost years in jail over a dream sold to them by McGuinness et al and this dream has not materialised. They see his big face on the TV and feel betrayed as he more than Adams represents the shift in power.

The natives are restless. You can call them thugs, hoods, whatever you like but if they get a sharp mind at the top table then don't be surprised if something big happened. Coupled with the fact that there is a Tory government, its not surprising things are ramping up again.

[cadence]

republican action against drugs? how very open minded of them.

[Cold tea]

To be fair (pun intended) in this current age of austerity it makes sense to merge.

Imagine what they will save on one HR system, one Payroll system, one Finance system and one CRM system. Will it mean job losses too? For example, they only need one Help Desk.

It will be dog eat dog as they jockey for positions, but redundancies will be inevitable.

PWC, Deloitte or Ernest&Young and the like are probably sniffing around the place too.

They probably have a position for an experienced consultant!

[cadence]

It was inevitable. The reality is that there are a group od disaffected Republicans who feel the SF have stabbed them in the back. I listened to one a while back. He personally accepts that violence is no longer an option but he said that many like him are disillusioned to the extreme about the current set up. Men who lost years in jail over a dream sold to them by McGuinness et al and this dream has not materialised. They see his big face on the TV and feel betrayed as he more than Adams represents the shift in power.

The natives are restless. You can call them thugs, hoods, whatever you like but if they get a sharp mind at the top table then don't be surprised if something big happened. Coupled with the fact that there is a Tory government, its not surprising things are ramping up again.

just on the point of drugs... i can only think of this as a very cynical use of a community's deprivation and problems to garner some reactionary support to build up a power base.

+ there's a failure to recognise that social deprivation is present in all societies. the uk riots happened because politics had failed the underclass. as far as i'm aware, no government in history has ever accepted that riots are political. but we're not seeing a popular uprising amongst the underclass in northern ireland here. we're seeing a faction that is disgruntled because they refuse to recognise that protestants in the main wish to remain part of the uk and this does not fit with their united ireland stance. goodwill between both communities would be something that's worthwhile i would have thought. precious even. i honestly can't see how the context in northern ireland atm can bring about such hardline views. baffling.

   

[LeoMc]

To be fair (pun intended) in this current age of austerity it makes sense to merge.

Imagine what they will save on one HR system, one Payroll system, one Finance system and one CRM system. Will it mean job losses too? For example, they only need one Help Desk.

It will be dog eat dog as they jockey for positions, but redundancies will be inevitable.

PWC, Deloitte or Ernest&Young and the like are probably sniffing around the place too.

They probably have a position for an experienced consultant!

They would need to make sure they don't get their IT systems done by the same crowd who did the UB/RBS.