Background
McKevitt, Who was a native of County Louth joined the Provisional IRA during the outbreak of the Troubles. In February 1975 he was shot in the knees by the Official IRA during a feud between the two organisations. He was a longtime senior member of the Provisional Irish Republican Army and served as the organisation's Quartermaster General, a role which gave him unique personal knowledge of the whereabouts of, and access to PIRA arms dumps. He quit the organisation in protest at the movement's ceasefires and its participation through Sinn Féin in the Peace Process which led to the Good Friday Agreement. McKevitt launched a dissident offshoot of the PIRA, called the Real IRA, using guns and weaponry he as the Quartermaster General of the PIRA had known the whereabouts of and had seized.
McKevitt is married to Bernadette Sands McKevitt, a sister of 1981 PIRA hunger striker and MP, Bobby Sands, who died during his hunger strike. Sands McKevitt was a leading member of the 32 County Sovereignty Movement and had been described in media reports as the third highest ranking Real IRA officer. She left the 32 County Sovereignty Movement following the imprisonment of her husband.
Read more about this topic: Michael McKevitt
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