Since the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA or PIRA) called a ceasefire and ended its campaign in 1997, breakaway groups opposed to the ceasefire and to the peace agreements ("dissident Irish republicans") have continued a low-level[4][5] armed campaign against the security forces in Northern Ireland.
They have targeted the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI)[N 4] and the British Army in gun and bomb attacks as well as with mortars and rockets.
To date, two British soldiers, two PSNI officers and two Prison Service guards have been killed as part of the republican campaign.
At least 50 civilians (and former combatants) have also been killed by republican paramilitaries,[citation needed] 29 of whom died in the Omagh bombing carried out by the Real IRA.
As a belligerent in what would come to be known as the Troubles, the PIRA waged an armed campaign against the British state that lasted until 1997 and claimed around 1800 lives.
For ONH; the acceptance by the Sinn Féin special Ard Fheis of the PSNI and the Real IRA's "criminality", whilst for the majority of Dissident Republicans and the RIRA/NIRA the cause was the Belfast Good Friday Agreement.
On 16 September 1997, the CIRA detonated a van bomb outside the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) base in Markethill, causing widespread damage.
The bombing happened a day after Sinn Féin joined the political negotiations which led to the Good Friday Agreement.
[8] On 1 August, following a telephoned warning, a RIRA car bomb detonated in the centre of Banbridge, injuring two RUC officers and 33 civilians.
They attempted to establish a security cordon to keep civilians clear of the area, which inadvertently pushed people closer to the actual location of the bomb.
Shortly after, the bomb exploded killing 29 people and injuring 220 others, in what became the deadliest attack of the Troubles inside Northern Ireland.
[8] The bombing caused a major outcry throughout the world, and the Irish and British governments introduced new legislation in an attempt to destroy the organisation.
In June 2000, a bomb damaged Hammersmith Bridge[14] and in September an RPG-22 rocket struck the SIS Building, headquarters of the Secret Intelligence Service, also known as the MI6.
In February 2001 a British Army cadet lost a hand when a booby-trap bomb exploded outside the 4th Battalion, Parachute Regiment's barracks in west London.
Dissident republicans made clear that they would never support a "British paramilitary police force" in any part of Ireland.
The group later issued a statement offering an apology and saying that the killing was "criminally wrong and detracted from the goal of Irish liberation".
In 2006, a group calling itself Óglaigh na hÉireann or ONH emerged; over the following years it would become the most active republican paramilitary after the RIRA.
[17] Following the IRA's declaration, the British Army greatly reduced its presence in Northern Ireland and left the PSNI in charge of security.
The Real IRA shot dead two off-duty British soldiers as they collected a delivery outside Massereene Barracks in Antrim.
[36][37][38] In May 2013 republican militant Christine Connor twice attempted to bomb Police Service of Northern Ireland patrols by luring them with false calls to a house on Crumlin Road, Belfast.
Commentators said the British Government chose to hold it in Northern Ireland partly to "show the world that the peace process has worked and normality has returned".
[51][52] A PSNI armoured jeep was hit by another horizontal mortar in Derry that November, blowing off a door and damaging a passing car.
[54] Two weeks later, a PSNI land rover was attacked with a homemade rocket-propelled grenade launcher on Crumlin Road, Belfast.
[55] In November 2015, a PSNI vehicle was riddled with automatic gunfire in Belfast, with dissident republicans suspected of being responsible.
[58][59] A group using the name Arm na Poblachta (meaning 'Army of the Republic') claimed responsibility for planting a roadside explosive device in Belfast on 1 November 2017.
[63][64] On 18 April 2019, rioting erupted following police raids in Derry, during which a New IRA gunman opened fire on the PSNI, killing journalist Lyra McKee.
[65] On 1 June 2019, a powerful improvised explosive device was found planted under a PSNI officer's car at a golf club in east Belfast.
The PSNI went to the Tullygally road area in Craigavon to investigate the claim and discovered a fake mortar device along with a concrete block with the booby trap bomb inside of it.
It is believed to have been planted by the CIRA, who intended to detonate it on Brexit day, 31 January 2020, when they thought it would be on a ferry, crossing the North Channel to Scotland.
[72] On 19 April 2021, a bomb was planted next to the car of a part-time female PSNI officer in Dungiven, County Londonderry, and was subsequently defused.