GARDAÍ IN CORK are monitoring a Real IRA gang that has established a lucrative fundraising method by forcing drug dealers in the city to pay protection money.  

The small dissident group is led by a man based on the northside of the city and backed up by long-time Republican activists.

The gang, The Journal has learned, has established an extortion racket to force criminals they have identified to give money in return for an agreement that they can operate. 

Sources have said that the group, which includes a number of members who have convictions for IRA membership, have told the criminals that they will be shot if they do not provide money to the gang. 

Sources have also said that the group has killed previously with suspicions that two members who act as enforcers for the gang’s leader are suspects for the murder of their one-time colleague Aidan “The Beast” O’Driscoll.

O’Driscoll, a senior figure in the Real IRA in Munster, died after he was shot four times on the Old Commons Road, in Blackpool, Cork City on 7 December 2016. 

Three men had pleaded guilty in 2019 at the Special Criminal Court for their part in the plan to kill O’Driscoll but the two gunmen have evaded justice. 

Shooting

In a court hearing in 2019, a garda detective confirmed that the three men were not directly involved in the shooting and that two men were the killers. 

The Beast got his nickname on the sports pitch having been a robust Gaelic football player at club level. 

He was shot in the middle of Blackpool village in Cork by two gunmen – he was first shot in the back and then, while he tried to run from his killers, was shot and killed. 

Gardaí believe that O’Driscoll was murdered as part of a power play in the organisation to take control of the Munster Real IRA which resulted in the current leader and his associates taking over command. 

The Journal has learned that the two men suspected of the shooting are close associates of the leader of the Real IRA based on the northside of Cork city – both men are middle aged with one a long-time republican activist. 

Sources said that gardaí are monitoring them but there are fears that they are growing their operations with large amounts of money gathered through the extortion racket.

One source said that the relationships of those in the gang go much further than just being members of the same organisation and that many have formed a close friendship and have been spotted socialising together. 

The last high-profile drug gang murder in Cork was of Gerard Stanton in 2010 who was suspected to have been murdered in relation to a dispute with another senior player in the Cork drugs trade. 

Nationally gardaí in Ireland and security forces in the North have led successful operations to stymie the activities of the group.

History of the group

The Real IRA was formed in 1997 by hardliners opposed to the Provisional IRA ceasefire and the subsequent Good Friday Agreement. Politically they believe that only violence will bring about the unification of Ireland and reject the peace process.  

Sources said there has been an effort by the dissidents to build a concerted and coordinated campaign with dissident groups amalgamating into an entity known as the New IRA. 

The most recent attack in November 2021 saw an attempt to murder two PSNI constables in an attack in Strabane – it is understood security forces believe that operation was launched by the New IRA.

Some of the members of the Real IRA and other groupings have refused to join forces with other dissidents and have continued to operate under their previous groupings. 

It is believed that the Cork activities are part of a Real IRA faction that refused to amalgamate into the new organisation.