Yes the real IRA are guys who did not agree with the peace treaty and decided to keep fighting, their actions are not praised by old IRA guys like Gerry Adams etc, they go against the peace treaty but are obviously small in number, they have done some bad stuff though like the Omagh bombing in 1997 that killed about 30 and they shot 2 British soldiers dead in 2009.
I think the leader though got shot dead in Dublin a few years ago in a gangland hit, but their still active.
They had a lot of support early on - that is to say, before Omagh. They were given weapons and assistance by Provos who were then on their ceasefire.
The British had to break the back of them, which they did with Omagh. After Omagh they were finished. If you're English you should shock yourself and see what your government did with Omagh - in my view the British at the very best manipulated the events to cause havoc or actually directed the while operation. The whole thing stinks - even the RUC/PSNI held their hands up and said so on British television just a couple of years ago.
Alan Ryan was the volunteer you mention. Shot this summer by drug dealers. His story is a hard one to work out. He was definitely a Republican activist and had been to training camps in the North, and perhaps even gone on active service, but I think he must have been taxing the drug dealers in Dublin. I don't think he personally benefitted from it though. He must have been giving the money for weapons and operations - though looking at the Real IRA, what fuckin operations? They're a joke and should give it up.
