Real Irish Republican Army - Structure and Status

Structure and Status

The RIRA has a command structure similar to the Provisional IRA, with a seven member Army Council consisting of a Chief of Staff, Quartermaster General, Director of Training, Director of Operations, Director of Finance, Director of Publicity and Adjutant General. The rank-and-file members operate in active service units of covert cells in order to prevent the organisation from being compromised by informers. As of June 2005, the organisation is believed to have a maximum of about 150 members, according to a statement by the Irish Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Michael McDowell.

The RIRA also has a political wing, the 32 County Sovereignty Movement (formerly the 32 County Sovereignty Committee), led by Francis Mackey. The RIRA is distinct from the Continuity IRA, another Provisional IRA splinter group founded in 1986, although the two groups have been known to co-operate at a local level. The Provisional IRA have been hostile to the RIRA and issued threats to RIRA members, and in October 2000 was alleged to be responsible for the fatal shooting of Belfast RIRA member Joe O'Connor according to O'Connor's family and 32 County Sovereignty Movement member Marian Price.

The RIRA is an illegal organisation under Irish and UK law (section 11(1) of the Terrorism Act 2000) because of the use of 'IRA' in the group's name. Membership of the organisation is punishable by a sentence of up to ten years imprisonment under UK law. In 2001 the United States government designated the RIRA as a "Foreign Terrorist Organization" (FTO). This makes it illegal for Americans to provide material support to the RIRA, requires US financial institutions to freeze the group's assets and denies suspected RIRA members visas into America.