New IRA say any border infrastructure and those manning it are 'legitimate targets'

Spekaing to the station's Chief News Correspondent, Alex Thomson, the man said the organisation reserved the right to attack anyone who upheld 'the illegal border in Ireland'.

Channel 4 said the interview took place yesterday at an IRA safe house south of the border under tight security conditions.

New IRA says border infrastructure would be "legitimate target for attack".

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— Channel 4 News (@Channel4News) October 16, 2019

The New IRA are believed to have a membership in the low hundreds but their threat led the Chief Constable of the PSNI, Simon Byrne, in August to warn of a return to paramilitary violence.

The group have admitted responsibility for a number of attacks in recent months including a car bomb detonated at the courthouse in Derry and the shooting dead of journalist Lyra McKee during rioting in the city.

Asked about the possibility of Brexit creating a 'hard' border with new infrastructure such as checkpoints either on the frontier or anywhere in Ireland north or south, the new IRA member said:

"First of all there is no such thing as an Irish border. It's a British border. Since its formation, since its inception the purpose of the IRA has been to take action against all such infrastructure of British occupation."

"The IRA is an army. And as an army we are committed to armed struggle for political and social change in Ireland. Bearing in mind any installation or aspects of British occupation within the Six Counties - be it at the border or elsewhere - any infrastructure would be a legitimate target for attack and armed actions against those infrastructures and against the people who are manning them."

"It's important to understand that this is a country under occupation by Britain and as in any colonial situation the people have the right there to respond by all means necessary to that occupation."

The spokesman went on to say no kind of Brexit deal would be acceptable to Irish Republicanism.

"Regardless of the form of occupation, whatever kind of border there is, be it soft or so called hard border - that's irrelevant. We are talking about an illegal occupation here that means the IRA reserved the right to attack those who are upholding that illegal occupation along the border and elsewhere and the illegal partition that goes with it. And those who are upholding that."

"The EU and the British and the 26 country administration constantly speak about the border as if it s been there two minutes and its only an issue with Brexit. There's been a border since 1921. It's been resisted. It is being resisted. It will be resisted regardless of any deal formed around it."

The spokesman was then asked repeatedly about why the IRA was continuing with armed violence years after a peace process was overwhelmingly endorsed by the people of the island of Ireland north and south:

"First off, the Good Friday Agreement is dead. It was superseded by various other agreements such as the Leeds Castle, St Andrews, Hillsborough deals and others. So the Good Friday Agreement is defunct."

"Secondly the Good Friday Agreement was not ratified by the Irish people as a unit, as a whole, but by two separate questions depending on which statelet they lived in."

The spokesman was asked why they persist with armed violence, with negligible support, a political irrelevance and on the wrong side of history?

"On the contrary we are not the wrong side of history . No colony has ever secured its freedom without armed resistance. We have more support than the Conservative Party, but they lord it over us. We also have more support in Ireland than the Labour Party does."

Pressed again that this comparison is bogus because the Irish people support and vote for Irish parties north and south, he replied:

"Well this is the mainland of Ireland. The IRA is confident that it has popular support for its goal of a 32 County Irish Republic. The political parties you reference are silent about the armed activities of the state. For instance the £25m HQ for MI5 at Palace Barracks."

"There are 700 MI5 operatives in Belfast City alone. Every PSNI officer is armed with a Glock pistol or a Heckler and Koch rifle. Contrary to popular belief there are still thousands of British soldiers operating in the six countries. And there are also armed pro-British death squads operating under the flag of Loyalism."

"So therefore the IRA will take no lectures on morality, or the futility of violence from those who remain morally in favour, if not tactically."

When asked whether the organisation would apologise for the shooting of Lyra McKee, the young journalists shot dead whilst observing rioting in the Creggan district of Derry earlier this year the New IRA man said 'absolutely.'

"We listened to calls from the Republican base at the time ... who rightly called for the IRA to take responsibility for the tragic loss of Lyra McKee's life and to apologise. As we stated at the time, the loss of any civilian life in the conflict is a tragedy and we directly apologised at the time to her partner, her family and her friends and on behalf of the IRA I reiterate that apology now."

Asked by C4's Alex Thomson why the new IRA felt it could succeed in achieving Irish unity through violent means when the Provisional movement had failed to do so over 30 years of conflict the man went on:

"Republicanism has always gone through peaks and valleys and at this point we remain heavily organised and to paraphrase a phrase of our enemy we are sophisticated and capable and showing increasing sophistication and ingenuity. But this is a period of consolidation and rebuilding. Rebuilding is important, but it's crucial to realise it doesn't reduce our operational capabilities."