The man who led a Real IRA's bombing campaign in England has been attacked in Portlaoise prison and put off the paramilitary group's wing.
James McCormack was punched after a row with other prisoners on the Real IRA's E3 landing in the top security jail.
Republican prisoners in other groups claim last week's bust-up came after the telephone number of a senior prison service official was found in McCormack's cell.
They said the note wasn't in McCormack's writing and it had raised serious suspicions among his republican comrades about what he was up to. Some believe he was spying on fellow inmates for the prison service.
The convicted bomber is now on the E1 landing in Portlaoise which houses non-aligned prisoners.
McCormack (43), a mechanic from Dundalk, Co Louth, was the Real IRA's commander in Portlaoise until he was recently demoted. Sources said he'd fallen foul of the outside leadership because he'd increasingly become a "loose cannon".
McCormack was jailed for 22 years in 2003 for leading a major dissident bombing campaign in Britain with four other Real IRA members.
The bomb team had carried out a wave of attacks two years earlier. In March 2001, they left a car bomb which rocked the BBC TV centre in Shepherds Bush. Twenty pounds of high explosives were placed in a red taxi bought the day before in north London.
Police were attempting to carry out a controlled explosion when the device went off. A tube worker was injured by flying glass. The Real IRA unit deliberately targeted the British capital on busy Saturday nights.
Five months later, they left another car bomb near Ealing Broadway underground station. Seven people, including revellers in a karaoke bar, were injured. Extensive damage was caused to many businesses.
In November 2001, the dissident unit moved to Birmingham but this time the car bomb they left in a popular clubbing area failed to detonate properly. The London bombs cost the British Exchequer millions of pounds in compensation.
McCormack pleaded guilty at the Old Bailey trial but, along with Noel Maguire from Co Fermanagh, still received 22 years imprisonment.
