The ‘IRA’ announced its formation in 2012 and has since grown into the largest and most deadly dissident republican group.
It was formed after a merger between the Real IRA, Derry based Republican Action Against Drugs and independent republicans based in the Mid Ulster area.
Often referred to as the New IRA, it is believed to have members across Ireland.
While it is difficult to gauge the group’s size, it has neither the membership or widespread support once enjoyed by the Provisional IRA.
However, it has shown that it has the capacity to kill.
Read more:
- Friends of Lyra McKee place red handprints on Saoradh's Derry HQ
- Lyra McKee's funeral will be 'celebration of her life' says partner
- Dissident republican group claims journalist Lyra McKee was shot dead 'accidentally' in Derry
In 2012 the organisation shot dead prison officer David Black as he made his way along the M1 motorway to Maghaberry Prison.
It also claimed responsibility for killing alleged drug dealer Kevin Kearney in north Belfast in October 2013.
The paramilitary group again targeted Prison Service staff when a bomb placed under a van used by prison officer Adrian Ismay detonated in March 2016. The 52-year-old died 11 days later.
Since its formation the organisation has also used a range of homemade weapons to target the PSNI.
These include potentially deadly Explosively Formed Projectile (EFP) mortars which are said to be capable of piercing armour over a long distance.
The weapon was first used by the IRA in an attack on a PSNI Land Rover in west Belfast in March 2014.
After the attack the New IRA claimed it has acquired its own Semtex and commercial detonators.
Read more:
- Journalist Lyra McKee (29) shot dead during Derry rioting
- 'How dare they' - priest who anointed journalist Lyra McKee hits out at killers
- Lyra McKee's murder an attack on peace and democracy'
The EFP is considered by some as the modern version of the horizontal mortar - known to republicans as a 'doodle bug' - which was used to deadly affect by the Provisional IRA to kill British soldiers and RUC officers.
In November 2014 a PSNI car was struck by an EFP as it travelled through the Creggan estate in Derry, the same area where Lyra McKee was shot dead on Thursday night.
No-one was hurt in the mortar incident.
Earlier this month a horizontal mortar tube attached to a frame was discovered near Castlewellan in Co Down.
In 2014 the group used a shoulder-held ‘drop and go’ homemade rocket launcher to target a PSNI Land Rover in north Belfast.
Police said it failed to completely detonate but pierced the outer skin of the vehicle.
In 2014 it claimed to have used an "anti- personnel explosive device" in Strabane Co Tyrone which was set to be detonated via command wire or trip wire.
In the same year a "calibrated pressure plate" device was also left for police in Derry.
The group has also used deadly AK-47 assault rifles to target police, which resulted in injuries to one officer on the Crumlin Road in January 2017.
Earlier this year it confirmed that it had sent parcel bombs to commercial targets and British army recruitment staff in England and Scotland.
Read more:
- Lyra McKee's partner says she has 'lost the woman I was planning to grow old with'
- Independent republican councillor Gary Donnelly calls on 'New IRA' to end all attacks
- Vigils for murdered journalist Lyra McKee
