Real Irish Republican Army

The Real Irish Republican Army (Real IRA) is a splinter group of the Irish Republican Army (IRA); it is responsible for the 1998 Omagh bombing in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland.

Since 1969, the IRA has carried out various terrorist attacks and assassinations, attempting to compel the British Army to withdraw from Northern Ireland. The IRA also wants to reunite Northern Ireland with the Republic of Ireland. In the summer of 1997, after several years of secret peace talks and two previous cease-fires, the IRA's governing body, the Army Council, met to discuss whether the IRA should again declare a cease-fire to enable delegates from its political arm, the Sinn Féin Party, to join proposed public peace negotiations. The Army Council debated fiercely about the proposed cease-fire, because of British government expectations that the IRA would decommission, that is, disarm, as a precondition of ...