March 2010

The Real IRA in south Armagh opens fire on police dealing with a suspicious object on the Belfast-Dublin train line. The organisation brings traffic in Belfast and Derry to a standstill with hijacked vehicles and bomb hoaxes. Security alerts close shopping centres in Belfast and Ballymena, and the Dublin train line for several days.

February 2010

The Real IRA in Derry kills Kieran Doherty, a senior member who allegedly admitted involvement in a Donegal cannabis factory. Doherty's body is dumped near the Border. It's the first time the Real IRA has killed one of its own.

» A 250lb Real IRA car bomb explodes outside Newry courthouse. It's the first dissident car bomb to explode in the North in 12 years after countless failed attempts.

Newry courthouse is a highly symbolic target given that it was attacked many times by the Provisionals pre-1994.

» The Real IRA throws a pipe-bomb at Oldpark PSNI station in North Belfast.

» A mortar bomb is abandoned near a PSNI station in Keady, Co Armagh.

The PSNI says it "had the potential to cause death". No organisation claims responsibility.

January 2010

The Real IRA kills convicted heroin dealer, Gerard 'Topper' Staunton (42) in Cork. It's the organisation's first murder in the Republic. The Real IRA threatens other heroin dealers in Cork.

» A PSNI officer is critically injured when an under-car bomb explodes under his car in Randalstown, Co Antrim. Peadar Heffron's leg is later amputated. Real IRA splinter group, Oglaigh na hEireann (ONH), claims the attack. Heffron was the PSNI's Irish language specialist and captain of its GAA team. The attack shows the dangers for Catholic police who continue to have links to nationalist areas.

» The Real IRA fires shots at Crossmaglen and Bessbrook PSNI stations.

December 2009

The Real IRA opens fire on Crossmaglen PSNI station.

November 2009

A 400lb car bomb is driven through a security barrier at the Policing Board's Belfast headquarters by two men who then run off. The device partially explodes.

» A judge targeted by republicans is followed to Belfast Boat Club. The previous month, another judge fled a restaurant in Limavady, Co Derry, after dissidents followed him there.

» Two men are arrested after an undercover police operation foils an attempt to kill a young Catholic PSNI recruit in Garrison, Co Fermanagh. Gerard McManus (26) from Letterkenny, Co Donegal – a reserve soldier in the Irish Army – and Kevin Barry Nolan (33) from Blacklion, Co Cavan, are charged with attempted murder.

No organisation claims responsibility.

» A horizontal mortar is made safe by British Army bomb experts in Armagh city. The PSNI says it's a "viable explosive device" designed to kill police.

October 2009

The Real IRA throws a bomb into a British Army base in North Belfast causing minor damage. The organisation also claims it had "targeted" a contractor working for the security forces the previous month.

» A PSNI officer's partner escapes death when a bomb explodes under her car in East Belfast. ONH was responsible.

September 2009

Judge Séamus Treacy flees his North Belfast home after a pipe bomb is found nearby. The bomb was discovered on the same day Treacy jailed three men for a plot to kill police in Lurgan.

» ONH leaves a 600lb landmine in a field near Forkhill in South Armagh. A command wire ran to a firing point across the Border. The PSNI says the device, defused by British Army bomb experts, was intended to kill police.

» The Real IRA carries out two pipe bomb attacks on the homes of the sister and parents of a Catholic PSNI officer in Derry.

August 2009

The Real IRA stages a roadblock in Meigh, South Armagh. Eight men, with AK47s and a rocket launcher, stop traffic and hand out leaflets telling locals not to co-operate with the PSNI or Sinn Fein.

A police car accidentally drives into the Real IRA checkpoint but speedily withdraws from the area.