Real Irish Republican Army

The self-styled 'Real' Irish Republican Army is a splinter group, founded after the signing of the Belfast Agreement (also known as the Good Friday Agreement) in 1998, intending to oppose the peace process and carry on an armed campaign in Northern Ireland.

They are one of a number of 'Dissident' Republican groups which object to the Provisional IRA's cessation of hostilties. The 'Real' IRA have committed a number of attacks, most notably a bomb which exploded in a busy shopping street in Omagh, Northern Ireland in 1998. The Omagh bomb killed 29 people, mainly women and children. There were also a number of relatively minor attacks on mainland Britain, including a taxi-bomb attack on the BBC Television Centre in West London, and a rocket propelled grenade attack on the MI6 Headquarters, despite the continuing ceasefire and slow movement towards disarmament by the Provisional IRA.