Real Irish Republican Army or True Irish Republican Army.

The Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland and elsewhere in the United Kingdom.

The RIRA's ultimate goal is the unification of the 26 counties in Republic of Ireland and the six counties in Northern Ireland under a republican government. The RIRA seeks to derail the Northern Ireland peace process.

The RIRA is relatively small, with only 100-200 hard-core members. Irish Republican Army hardliners dissatisfied with the peace process are thought to give limited support to the RIRA. Support also comes from other republican sympathizers. U.K. and Irish security services arrested more than 40 RIRA members in 2001, including the group's leader, Michael McKevitt.

In 2005, Irish Minister for Justice Michael McDowell told the Dail, the lower house of the Irish legislature, that the organization had a maximum of about 150 members.

Sympathizers in the U.S. are suspected of providing support to the RIRA. The group has attempted to purchase arms in the U.S. and the Balkans. In 2002, three Irish citizens were extradited from Slovenia to the U.K. to face weapons-procurement charges.

The RIRA has been accused of carrying out bombings, assassinations and robberies. The group targets Protestant communities and British military and police targets in Northern Ireland.

The RIRA was blamed for the single deadliest attack in the decades of violence in Northern Ireland when a 500-pound car bomb in Omagh, County Tyrone, detonated and killed 28 in August 1998.

After the Omagh attack, the RIRA declared a cease-fire until 2000. In 2000 and 2001, the RIRA again attacked targets, including the headquarters in London of MI6, the British secret intelligence service.

The RIRA has carried out a "barracks-buster" campaign and has launched mortars at security installations in Northern Ireland.

The RIRA is believed to be actively training, acquiring weapons and planning for future attacks. After a bomb attack in May 2008, the RIRA issued a communique stating: "We reserve the right to strike against organs of the British state and its infrastructure in a manner of our choosing, at a time and place of our choosing, in the six counties and elsewhere. As we continue to strengthen our military capacity, this will be demonstrated."

The RIRA was established in 1997 by dissident members of the Irish Republican Army. It is suspected of being the secret military wing of the 32-County Sovereignty Movement, a group dedicated to removing the British from Northern Ireland and unifying Ireland. That group opposed Sinn Fein's September 1997 adoption of the Mitchell Principles (named after former U.S. Sen. George Mitchell (D.-Maine), who was involved in the negotiations) and the Good Friday Accords of 1998.

RIRA leader Michael McKevitt left the mainstream Irish Republican Army (IRA) after Sinn Fein and the IRA agreed to the political settlement that culminated in the Good Friday Accords. McKevitt is married to Bernadette Sands-McKevitt, who is a founding member of the 32-County Sovereignty Movement and the sister of IRA activist Bobby Sands.

McKevitt was the IRA's quartermaster-general and was in charge of weapons shipments into Northern Ireland. He was arrested in March 2001 by Irish authorities, and in August 2003 was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Other members of the RIRA leadership include several of the IRA's "army executive," who were also dissatisfied with the Good Friday Accords. Former leading ex-IRA bombmakers have also joined the RIRA.

The Independent Monitoring Commission for the peace process noted in its November 2009 report that both factions of RIRA had been active in the six-month reporting period beginning in March 2009, reiterating its view that RIRA was "determined and ruthless." The murder of soldiers in March 2009 and the wounding of four other persons at the same time "represented a major escalation of RIRA activity and was the first time they had murdered members of the security forces," the commission said. In assessing both RIRA and the Continuity Irish Republican Army (CIRA), the commission noted that they "had remained extremely active and dangerous."

Both groups, the commission said, had "engaged in a high level of violence, often with the intention of murdering members of the security forces and placing the lives of members of the general public at peril." Activities by the groups since the early summer of 2008 were "consistently more serious" than at any time since the commission began its reports in April 2004. The commission concluded that "these activities represented a challenging of the peace process by groups always violently opposed to it, but not an unravelling of that process."

1997
October: Dissatisfied with Sinn Fein and the IRA's acceptance of the Mitchell Principles and the Northern Ireland peace process, members of the IRA created the Real Irish Republican Army to continue the armed struggle for a united Ireland.

1998
Aug. 1: A 500-pound car bomb exploded in Banbridge, County Down, Northern Ireland, wounding 35 people. The RIRA claimed responsibility for the attack.

Aug. 15: A 500-pound car bomb exploded in the shopping district of Omagh, in County Tyrone in Northern Ireland, killing 28 and wounding hundreds of others. Widespread condemnation from Catholic and Protestant communities in Northern Ireland followed the bombing. The RIRA suspended its violent activities until 2000.

2000
September: The RIRA launched a Russian-built RPG-22 anti-tank weapon at the U.K.'s foreign intelligence service (MI6) headquarters in London.

2001
Spring and summer: Irish and U.K. authorities arrested at least 40 RIRA members, including RIRA leader Michael McKevitt.

March 4: A car bomb exploded outside the BBC's television production facilities in London. One person was injured in the blast.

May 16: The U.S. State Dept. placed the RIRA on its list of designated foreign terrorist groups.

2003
January: The relatives of the victims of the Omagh attack filed suit against the RIRA members believed responsible for the bombing. Michael McKevitt, Liam Campbell, Colm Murphy, Seamus McKenna and Seamus Daly were sued for $16 million.

Aug. 6: McKevitt was convicted of plotting the deadly Omagh bombing and being a member of the RIRA. He was sentenced to 20 years in jail.

Nov. 3: Counter-terrorism police arrested five French nationals in northwestern France in connection with RIRA activity. The suspects were linked to an alleged RIRA weapons cache that was discovered in Dieppe.

2004
Sept. 9: Gunmen fired 30 AK-47 rounds at construction workers on the building site of a new police station in Londonderry. The RIRA claimed responsibility for the attack.

December: The RIRA initiated a campaign of fake and real firebombs at commecial sites around Northern Ireland.

2005
May 24: A report by Northern Ireland's Independent Monitoring Commission said the RIRA was still actively gathering intelligence, recruiting and training its members in the use of guns and explosives. "It has continued efforts to improve its capacity in the use of explosives," the IMC report said. "We believe this is the work of an organization which is ruthless and committed to terrorism."

2006
May: Britain's domestic counter-intelligence and security agency, MI5, was ordered to devote 20 percent of its resources to tackling the potential threat of IRA splinter groups in Northern Ireland, including RIRA.

June 20: Northern Ireland police forces arrested 10 people during raids on eight houses in counties Armagh and Fermanagh. The raids were believed to have targeted RIRA members. According to local police officials, the operation disrupted a potential major terrorist conspiracy.

Aug. 11: Firebomb attacks destroyed a number of buildings in the Northern Ireland city of Newry, County Down. RIRA claimed responsibility for the attacks.

Oct. 28: Irish police found a large amount of explosives in County Carlow, located in the southeast of the Republic of Ireland in the province of Leinster. Authorities said they believed the explosives belonged to RIRA, and that the group was plotting to disrupt a government power-sharing deal.

2007
Oct. 10: MI5, the U.K.'s counterintelligence agency, took over counterterrorism responsibilities in Northern Ireland from the Police Service.

November: The RIRA issued a statement saying the group was planning attacks on the Northern Ireland security forces, particularly the Police Service.

Nov. 8: An off-duty member of the Police Service was shot and killed in the Northern Ireland city of Derry. The RIRA was believed to be responsible.

Nov. 12: An off-duty member of the Police Service was shot and killed in Dungannon, in Northern Ireland's County Tyrone. The RIRA was blamed for the attack.

2008
Jan. 22: Lithuania arrested an RIRA member for attempting to arrange a shipment of weapons to Northern Ireland. Michael Campbell, the brother of RIRA leader Liam Campbell, was arrested in Vilnius in a sting operation and was charged with trying to obtain arms, munitions, guns and explosive material, as well as with being supportive of a terrorist group.

March: RIRA members were arrested in southern Ireland in possession of terrorist material.

April: RIRA members burst into a home in Belfast and shot a resident in both legs.

May 12: The RIRA attacked an off-duty police officer with a car bomb in Castlederg, in County Tyrone, injuring the officer. That same month, RIRA claimed responsibility for planting an incendiary device that damaged a store in Cookstown. The group was responsible for initiating a significant number of hoax calls during a May international investment conference.

July: RIRA militants assaulted a Sinn Fein official.

2009
March 9: RIRA claimed responsibility for the shooting death of two British soldiers outside Massereene Army base in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. It was the deadliest attack in Northern Ireland in a decade. Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams called it an attack on the peace process. He added it was wrong and counter-productive.

April: RIRA issued a statement claiming a "right" to execute anybody providing services to the security forces, seemingly justifying shooting and wounding two civilian pizza deliverers in the March attack on Massereene. Also in April, RIRA told a newspaper that it would mount an attack in Great Britain when it became opportune to do so.

June: Liam Campbell, a longtime RIRA activist, was among several militants found liable for participating in a 1998 RIRA attack in Omagh that resulted in 29 fatalities. At the time of the judge's ruling, Campbell remained in custody in Northern Ireland.

August: Armed and masked RIRA members mounted a road block in Meigh, County Armagh, to hand out leaflets threatening anyone who passed information to security forces or Sinn Fein.

Sept. 11: RIRA took responsibility for several violent actions in Londonderry. In one incident, RIRA exploded a bomb outside the home of the parents of a Catholic security officer, damaging a car. In the second incident, a bomb was left near the home of the officer's sister. Police later detonated the device. In the third action, RIRA took responsibility for shooting a man in the legs and arm near Drumard Park.

2010
Feb. 4: A top RIRA member was found dead in his home at Stamullen, Gormanston, in County Meath, Republic of Ireland. The activist, Seamus McGreevy, had been jailed following the discovery of an underground training camp on his property. In January 2010, police discovered a cannabis factory in a property owned by McGreevy. Lithuanian extradition activities were pending at the time of McGreevy's death. He was charged in Lithuania with conspiring to smuggle guns, ammunition and explosives into Ireland.