Real IRA supporters in Belfast are engraving pound coins with the initials
of the paramilitary group. Hundreds of coins are circulating in the west and
north of the city with "RIRA" machine-stamped on the side of the Queen's
head.
The DUP has described it as "a sick publicity stunt" which is disrespectful
to the British monarch. "This is insulting to the entire population of
Northern Ireland, Catholic and Protestant," said Ian Paisley jnr.
"These people have no respect for our Britishness. They need to face the
political reality that the Queen's head is on our currency because she is
the British sovereign and Northern Ireland remains British."
He added that the inscribed coins were a grave insult to the Omagh bomb
victims. A republican supporter justified the engraving: "The Queen's head
insults Irish victims of British imperialism yet we have to look at it every
day."
Displays of paramilitary support haven't appeared on the North's currency
for years. In the early Troubles, their supporters stamped "IRA" on coinage.
During the H-Block hunger-strike, republicans wrote 'H-Block' on banknotes
to show solidarity with hunger-strikers and raise public awareness of the
campaign.
Loyalist paramilitaries have previously manufactured fake banknotes
inscribed with UDA and UVF insignia. The Real IRA was formed in 1997 by
senior Provisionals opposed to the ceasefire and the Adams-McGuinness
leadership's political direction.
It initially posed a major threat to the peace process with a series of
high-profile bomb attacks on security and commercial targets but was forced
to call a ceasefire after the 1998 Omagh bomb in which 29 civilians were
killed.
It restarted its campaign within 18 months but shortly afterwards several
leading figures were arrested and jailed. Although not on ceasefire, in
recent years it has been unable to mount a sustained military campaign.
