The 32 County Sovereignty Movement (often abbreviated to 32CSM or 32csm) is an Irish republican political organisation that supports the Real IRA's paramilitary activities. The 32CSM's objectives are:

(a) The restoration of Irish national sovereignty.

(b) To seek to achieve unity among the Irish people on the issue of restoring national sovereignty and to promote the revolutionary ideals of republicanism and to this end involve itself in resisting all forms of colonialism and imperialism.

(c) To seek the immediate and unconditional release of all Irish republican prisoners throughout the world.^[1]

Many of the 32 County Sovereignty Movement's founding members had previously been members of Sinn Féin and they were also involved with a sub-group within Sinn Féin called the 32 County Sovereignty Committee. The 32CSM are suspected to be aligned with the Real IRA.^[2][3]

History

The organisation was founded on 7 December 1997 at a meeting in Fingal in Dublin by republican activists who were opposed to the direction taken by Sinn Féin and other mainstream republican politicians in the peace process, which would lead to the Belfast Agreement (also known as the Good Friday Agreement) the following year. The same division in the republican movement led to the paramilitary group now known as the Real IRA breaking away from the Provisional Irish Republican Army at around the same time. The 32 County Sovereignty Movement is often considered to be the ‘political wing’ of the Real IRA,^[4] although members reject the term.

Most of its founders had been members of Sinn Féin; some had been expelled from the party and others felt they had not been properly able to air their concerns within Sinn Féin at the direction its leadership had taken. Bernadette Sands McKevitt, a sister of hunger striker Bobby Sands and wife of Michael McKevitt, was a prominent member of the group until a split in the organisation.

The name refers to the 32 counties of Ireland which were established when the whole island of Ireland was under British rule. Twenty-six of these original counties now form the Republic of Ireland and the other six remain part of the United Kingdom.

Before the referendums on the Good Friday Agreement, the 32CSM lodged a legal submission with the United Nations challenging British sovereignty in Ireland. In November 2005 the 32CSM launched a political initiative titled Irish Democracy, A Framework For Unity.

Protests

This group has been subject to protests by the families of those who died in the Omagh bombing which was perpetrated by the Real IRA.^[5]

Illegality

This group is currently designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) in the United States as the group is considered to be inseparable from the RIRA.^[6] At a briefing in 2001, the spokesman for US Department of State stated that "evidence provided by both the British and Irish governments and open source materials demonstrate clearly that the individuals who created the real IRA also established these two entities to serve as the public face of the real IRA. These alias organizations engage in propaganda and fundraising on behalf of and in collaboration with the real IRA".^[7] This made it illegal for Americans to provide material support to the RIRA, requires US financial institutions to block the group's assets and denies alleged RIRA members visas into the US.

References

External links

• Official website
• 32 County Sovereignty Movement on the Politics.ie wiki