Origins
On 10 October 1997 a Provisional IRA General Army Convention was held in Falcarragh, County Donegal. At the convention Provisional IRA Quartermaster General Michael McKevitt, also a member of the 12-person Provisional IRA Executive, denounced the leadership and called for an end to the group's ceasefire and participation in the Northern Ireland peace process. He was backed by his common-law wife and fellow Executive member Bernadette Sands-McKevitt. The pair were outmanoeuvred by the leadership, and a key ally, Kevin McKenna, was voted off the Army Council leaving the pair isolated. The convention backed the orthodox pro-ceasefire line, and on 26 October McKevitt and Sands-McKevitt resigned from the Executive along with several other members.
In November 1997 McKevitt and other dissidents held a meeting in a farmhouse in Oldcastle, County Meath, and a new organisation styling itself Óglaigh na hÉireann was formed. The organisation attracted disaffected Provisional IRA members from the republican stronghold of South Armagh, as well as other areas including Dublin, and Belfast cities, and Counties Limerick, Tipperary, Louth, Tyrone, Monaghan, and Kerry.
Read more about this topic: Real Irish Republican Army
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