Michael McKevitt

Michael McKevitt (born 4 September 1949) is an Irish republican who was convicted of directing terrorism as the leader of the paramilitary organisation, the Real IRA.

McKevitt, a native of County Louth, joined the Provisional IRA during the outbreak of the Troubles. In February 1975 he was shot in the knees by the Official IRA during a feud between the two organisations. He was a longtime senior member of the Provisional IRA and served as the organisation's Quartermaster General, with oversight of their arms caches. He quit the organisation in protest at the movement's ceasefires and its participation through Sinn Féin in the Northern Ireland peace process which led to the Good Friday Agreement. McKevitt launched a dissident offshoot of the PIRA called the Real IRA, using seized PIRA weaponry.

McKevitt was expelled from the Real IRA after a disagreement between a group of Real IRA prisoners in Portlaoise Prison and the outside leadership. The prisoners issued a statement urging the leadership to stand down claiming a criminal element had taken over. McKevitt and his supporters went on to form a group called the New Republican Forum.

In June 2009, McKevitt was one of four men found by a civil court to be liable for the 1998 Omagh bombing in a case taken by relatives of the victims. In April 2014, The Telegraph revealed that McKevitt, along with Liam Campbell, were appealing the ruling to the European Court of Human Rights, citing their inability to cross-examine testimony of FBI agent David Rupert as a violation of their right to a fair trial.

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