Timeline of dissident republican activity

Dissident republican groups oppose the 1998 Good Friday Agreement

BBC News NI takes a look at significant events involving dissident republicans since March 2009.

The term "dissident republicans" describes a range of individuals who do not accept the Good Friday Agreement - the 1998 peace deal which ended the worst of the Troubles in Northern Ireland.

The Provisional IRA - the main armed republican paramilitary group for most of the Troubles - declared a ceasefire in the run up to the agreement and officially ended its violent campaign in 2005.

Dissident republicanism is made up of various groups which broke away from the Provisional IRA in the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s, including the Continuity IRA and New IRA.

The groups are much smaller than the Provisional IRA, although they have access to high-calibre weapons and have used improvised explosive devices and mortars in attacks and attempted attacks.

They have continued to use violence to attempt to unite Northern Ireland with the Republic of Ireland in a single state but their activities have been sporadic and often undermined by the security services.

August 2023

A list containing the details of 10,000 police officers and civilian staff is in the hands of dissident republicans, police confirmed.

The information was contained in a spreadsheet mistakenly released as part of a PSNI response to a freedom of information request.

Chief Constable Simon Byrne said the data breach was on an industrial scale and included the surnames, initials and ranks of colleagues.

He said dissident republicans could use the information, part of which appeared in redacted form on a wall in west Belfast, to "intimidate or target officers and staff".

April 2023

Young hooded men prepare to throw a petrol bomb at police vehicle in Londonderry.

Police described a petrol bomb attack on officers as "senseless and reckless".

The trouble followed an illegal republican parade in Londonderry and came on the eve of a visit by US President Joe Biden to Belfast.

DCI John Caldwell was also released from hospital in April and in a later interview said children witnessed "horrors that no child should ever have to".

March 2023

The terrorism threat level in Northern Ireland is increased from substantial to severe, meaning the risk of attack or attacks is now "highly likely" instead of "likely".

The move, based on an MI5 intelligence assessment, reverses a downgrade to the threat level in 2022, the first such downgrade in 12 years.

A severe threat level is one step below critical, the highest level of threat.

It comes after the shooting of Det Ch Insp John Caldwell in February and a bomb attack on police officers in November 2022.

February 2023

Senior police officer Det Ch Insp John Caldwell was shot at a sports complex in Omagh, County Tyrone, on 22 February.

He was off duty and was putting footballs into the boot of his car after coaching young people when two gunmen approached him and shot him several times.

An attempted murder investigation was launched.

Police said the primary focus of their investigation was on violent dissident republicans, including the New IRA.

The New IRA later claimed responsibility in a typed statement which appeared in Londonderry on Sunday 26 February.

November 2022

An attempted murder investigation was launched after a police patrol vehicle was damaged in a bomb attack in Strabane, County Tyrone, on 17 November.

Police said a strong line of inquiry was that the New IRA was behind the attack.

Four men who were arrested were later released.

A grey Ford Mondeo was hijacked by a number of men before being driven to a police station

On 20 November a delivery driver was held at gunpoint by a number of men and forced to abandon his car outside Waterside police station in Londonderry.

A suspicious device, which was later described by police as an elaborate hoax, was placed in the vehicle.

Ch Supt Nigel Goddard described the attack as "reckless" and said detectives believed the New IRA were involved.

April 2022

Officers were attacked with petrol bombs following an Easter parade linked to dissident republicans in Derry.

The police described the attack at the City Cemetery on 18 April as "premeditated violence".

The violence broke out following a parade that had been planned by the National Republican Commemoration Committee, which organises events on behalf of the anti-agreement republican party, Saoradh - a party police say is linked to the New IRA.

April 2021

A police officer was targeted in this attack in Dungiven

A bomb was left near a police officer's car outside her home on 19 April in County Londonderry in what the police said was an attempt to kill her and her young daughter.

The explosive was attached to a container of flammable liquid next to her car in Dungiven.

Police said they linked the attempted murder to the New IRA.

September 2019

Police provided this image of the bomb

A bomb was found in the Creggan area of Derry after police searches in the area on 9 September.

The device was found in a parked car and was described by detectives as in "an advanced state of readiness" and was made safe by Army technical officers.

It contained commercial explosives which could have been triggered by a command wire.

During the searches, police were attacked with stones and petrol bombs.

Police photos show the bomb just metres from the door of a house

A mortar bomb was left near a police station in Church View, Strabane on 7 September.

Homes were evacuated and Army technical officers made the device safe.

Police said the device had been an attempt to target police officers but that it could have killed or seriously injured anyone in the vicinity.

A 33-year-old man was arrested under terrorism legislation but was released after questioning.

August 2019

A police officer at the scene of the bomb at Cavan Road, Fermanagh

A bomb exploded near Wattlebridge in County Fermanagh, on 19 August.

Police said it was an attempt to lure officers to their deaths. Initially, a report received by police suggested a device had been left on the Wattlebridge Road.

Police believed a hoax device was used to lure police and soldiers into the area in order to catch them by surprise with a real bomb on the Cavan Road.

Chief Constable Simon Byrne later blamed the Continuity IRA for the attack.

July 2019

Dissident republicans tried to murder police officers during an attack in Craigavon, County Armagh, the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) said.

A long bang was heard on the Tullygally Road and a "viable device" was later found.

Police said they believed the attack was set up to target officers responding to a call from the public.

The bomb was discovered at Shandon Park Golf Club in east Belfast

June 2019

The "New IRA" claimed responsibility for a bomb under a police officer's car at Shandon Park Golf Club in east Belfast.

The Irish News said the group issued a statement to the newspaper using a recognised codeword.

Police said they believed "violent dissident republicans" were behind the attack.

April 2019

Lyra McKee died in Londonderry on 18 April

A journalist is shot dead while observing rioting in the Creggan area of Derry.

Police blame the killing of 29-year-old Lyra McKee on dissident republicans.

The previous week a horizontal mortar tube and command wire were found in Castlewellan, County Down.

The PSNI said the tube contained no explosive device and it was likely to be collected for use elsewhere

March 2019

The device sent to Heathrow Airport caught fire when staff opened it

Five small explosive packages were found at locations across Great Britain and the Republic of Ireland.

The letter bombs were sent in the post to Waterloo Station in London, buildings near Heathrow and London City airports and Glasgow University. A further device was found at a post depot in County Limerick.

The New IRA said it was behind the letter bombs, according to the Irish News.

January 2019

The bomb exploded outside Bishop Street Courthouse in Derry

A bomb placed inside a van explodes in the centre of Derry.

The blast happened on a Saturday night outside Bishop Street Courthouse.

The PSNI said the attack may have been carried out by the New IRA, adding that a pizza delivery man had a gun held to his head when his van was hijacked for the bombing.

November 2018

The bullets and guns exploded after being left in a hot boiler house

A stash of bullets and guns believed to belong to dissident republicans exploded after being left on top of a hot boiler at a house in west Belfast.

Responding to reports of a house fire in Rodney Drive, police and firefighters discovered two AK-47s, two sawn-off shot guns, a high-powered rifle with a silencer and three pipe bombs.

Police blamed the New IRA and said the weapons were believed to have been used in previous attempts to murder police officers in Belfast in 2015 and 2017.

May 2018

The weapons including two shotguns, four handguns, explosives, ammunition and a suspected mortar tube

Police said a "significant amount of dangerous weapons" were seized during a 12-day search operation in counties Armagh and Tyrone.

Thirteen searches took place on land and properties in Lurgan and Benburb from 29 April to 11 May.

The weapons included two shotguns, four handguns, explosives, ammunition and a suspected mortar tube.

Police believed the munitions belonged to two dissident republican paramilitary groups - Arm Na Poblachta. (Army of the Republic) and the Continuity IRA.

April 2018

Petrol bombs and stones were thrown at police vehicles during an illegal dissident republican parade in Derry on 2 April.

About 200 people attended the Easter Rising 1916 commemoration parade in the Creggan estate.

February 2018

A neighbour said Raymond Johnston had been making pancakes for Pancake Tuesday when he was murdered

Dissident republicans may have been behind the murder of a man in west Belfast, police said.

Raymond Johnston, 28, was shot dead in front of an 11-year-old girl and his partner at a house in Glenbawn Avenue on 13 February.

Police said the main line of inquiry was that Mr Johnson was murdered by dissidents.

January 2018

Dissident republican paramilitary group, Óglaigh na hÉireann (ONH), declares a ceasefire.

In a statement, it said that "at this time the environment is not conducive to armed conflict".

The group said it would "suspend all armed actions against the British state" with immediate effect.

It was responsible for a number of high-profile attacks, including the attempted murder of police officer Peadar Heffron and a bomb attack at Palace barracks in Holywood.

February 2017

Charges suggested that Ciarán Maxwell first became involved in terrorism in 2011

Former Royal Marine Ciarán Maxwell pleaded guilty to offences related to dissident republican terrorism, including bomb-making and storing stolen weapons.

The County Antrim man had compiled a library of terrorism documents, including instructions on how to make explosives and tactics used by terrorist organisations.

He also had maps, plans and lists of potential targets for a terrorist attack, and a stash of explosives in purpose-built hides in England and Northern Ireland.

He was jailed for 18 years.

February 2017

The bomb exploded as it was being examined by the Army

A bomb exploded outside the home of a serving police officer in Derry on 22 February as Army experts tried to defuse it.

The device, which police described as more intricate than a pipe bomb, was reportedly discovered under a car in Culmore in the city.

Children were in the area at the time, police said.

Meanwhile a gun attack on a 16-year-old boy in west Belfast on 16 February was "child abuse," a senior police officer said.

The attack followed a similar one the previous night, when a man was shot in the legs close to a benefits office on the Falls Road.

January 2017

The shooting happened at a petrol station on the Crumlin Road

A police officer is injured in a gun attack at a garage on the Crumlin Road in north Belfast on 22 January.

Police said automatic gunfire was sprayed across the garage forecourt in a "crazy" attack.

The number of paramilitary-style shootings in west Belfast doubled in 2016 compared to the previous year, according to police figures.

On 15 January, police said a bomb discovered during a security operation in Poleglass, west Belfast, was "designed to kill or seriously injure police officers".

December 2016

A 45-year-old mechanic caught at a bomb-making factory on a farm was told he would spend 11 years behind bars.

Barry Petticrew was arrested in October 2014 after undercover police surveillance on farm buildings near Kinawley, County Fermanagh.

Police found pipes, timer units, ammunition and high grade explosives in the buildings.

Explosive devices, improvised rockets, detonators, timing units and Semtex were discovered by Irish police

On 6 December, a 25-year-old dissident republican was jailed in Dublin for five years.

Donal Ó Coisdealbha from Killester, north Dublin was arrested on explosive charges in the run-up to the visit of Prince Charles to Ireland in 2015.

He was arrested during a Garda (Irish police) operation when explosive devices, improvised rockets, detonators, timing units and Semtex were discovered.

November 2016

Following the sentencing, police released a photo of the heavily bloodstained scene of the shooting

A man who admitted taking part in a paramilitary shooting in Belfast was sentenced to five years in jail and a further five years on licence.

Patrick Joseph O'Neill, of no fixed address, was one of three masked men who forced their way into the victim's home in Ardoyne in November 2010.

The man was shot several times in the legs and groin in front of his mother, who fought back with kitchen knives.

The dissident republican group Óglaigh na hÉireann claimed responsibility for the shooting shortly after it took place.

October 2016

Joe Reilly was shot dead in a house at Glenwood Court

West Belfast man Joe Reilly, 43, was shot dead in his Glenwood Court, Poleglass home on 20 October.

It is understood a second man who was in the house was tied up by the gang.

The shooting was the second in the small estate in less than a week - the other victim was shot in the leg.

Police later said they believed the the murder was carried out by a paramilitary organisation and there may have been a drugs link.

September 2016

Dissident republicans formed a new political party called Saoradh - the Irish word for liberation.

Several high-profile dissidents from both sides of the border were among about 150 people at its first conference in Newry.

May 2016

The discovery of arms in a County Antrim forest on 17 May was one of the most significant in recent years, police said.

A "terrorist hide" was uncovered at Capanagh Forest near Larne after two members of the public found suspicious objects in the woods on Saturday.

Some of the items found included an armour-piercing improvised rocket and two anti-personnel mines.

The threat level from Northern Ireland-related terrorism in Great Britain was raised from moderate to substantial.

Two Claymore mines were among the arms found in Capanagh Forest

April 2016

A man died after being shot three times in the leg in an alleyway at Butler Place, north Belfast, on15 April.

Michael McGibbon, 33, was taken to the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast, where he later died.

Police said Mr McGibbon contacted them to say two masked men had arrived at his house on the evening of 14 April.

The men asked him to come out of the house but he refused and the men told him they would come back.

The shooting took place in an alleyway at Butler Place in north Belfast

Police said his killing carried the hallmarks of a paramilitary murder.

March 2016

Adrian Ismay was the 32nd prison staff member to be murdered in Northern Ireland because of his job

A murder investigation was launched after the death of prison officer Adrian Ismay, 11 days after he was injured in a booby-trap bomb attack in east Belfast.

The device exploded under the 52-year-old officer's van as he drove over a speed ramp in Hillsborough Drive on 4 March.

Days later, the New IRA said it carried out the attack.

Mr Ismay was thought to have been making a good recovery from his injuries, but was rushed back to hospital on 15 March, where he died.

A post-mortem examination found his death was as a "direct result of the injuries" he sustained in the bomb.

December 2015

Dissident republicans were dealt "a significant blow" by a weapons and explosives find in the Republic of Ireland, the gardaí (Irish police) said.

The weapons, including AK-47 assault rifles, mortars, detonators and other bomb parts, were discovered in County Monaghan, close to the border with Rosslea in County Fermanagh, on 1 December.

On 15 December, a further arms find, described as a "significant cache" by Irish broadcaster RTÉ, was made in County Louth.

November 2015

A number of shots hit the passenger window of a police car in an attack in west Belfast

A gun attack on police officers in west Belfast on 26 November, in which up to eight shots were fired, was treated as attempted murder.

A number of shots struck the passenger side of a police car parked at Rossnareen Avenue.

Two officers who were in the car were not injured but were said to have been badly shaken.

October 2015

Supt Mark McEwan said that from September 2014 there had been 15 bomb incidents in the Derry City and Strabane District council area.

They included seven attacks on the police.

On 10 October, a bomb was found in the grounds of a Derry hotel ahead of a police recruitment event.

The police recruitment event was cancelled. Two other police recruitment events in Belfast and Omagh went ahead despite bomb alerts at the planned venues.

On 16 October police said a "military-style hand grenade" was thrown at a patrol in Belfast as officers responded to reports of anti-social behaviour.

Police say the device, which failed to explode, was thrown at officers near Pottingers Quay.

Dissident republicans were suspected of being responsible for the attack.

August 2015

Police found a mortar bomb during an alert in Strabane

Police said a mortar bomb found in a graveyard in Strabane, County Tyrone, on 1 August was an attempt to kill officers.

The device was positioned where it could be used to attack passing PSNI patrols, police said.

June 2015

A bomb was found under a police officer's car in Eglinton, near Derry, on 18 June.

Police said the attack was a "clear attempt to murder police officers".

PSNI district commander Mark McEwan said the wife of the officer was also a member of the PSNI.

May 2015

Two bombs found close to an Army Reserve centre in Derry were left about 20m from nearby homes.

The devices were left at the perimeter fence of the Caw Camp Army base and were discovered at 11:00 BST on 4 May.

The two bombs partially detonated.

About 15 homes in Caw Park and Rockport Park were evacuated during the security operation.

Police said a bomb left at Brompton Park in north Belfast was designed to kill officers

A device found in north Belfast on 1 May was a substantial bomb targeting police officers, the PSNI said.

A controlled explosion was carried out on the device at the Crumlin Road junction with Brompton Park.

The PSNI blamed dissident republicans for the bomb and said it could have caused "carnage".

April 2015

On 28 April, a bomb exploded outside a probation office in Crawford Square, Derry.

Police said they were given an "inadequate" warning before the device went off.

No-one was injured.

February 2015

A bomb was found during a search of the Curryneiran estate in Derry

A bomb is found was found during a security alert in the Curryneiran estate in Derry on 17 February.

Police said they believe the bomb was intended to kill officers and that those who had left it showed a "callous disregard for the safety of the community and police officers".

Meanwhile at least 40 dissident republican prisoners were involved in an incident at Maghaberry Prison on 2 February.

Prison management withdrew staff from the landings in Roe House housing dissidents.

A protest, involving about 200 people, took place outside the prison in support of the republican prisoners.

January 2015

On 8 January, the head of MI5 says most dissident republican attacks in Northern Ireland in 2014 were foiled.

Andrew Parker said of more than 20 such attacks, most were unsuccessful and that up to four times that amount had been prevented.

He made the remarks during a speech in which he gave a stark warning of the dangers UK was facing from terrorism.

He said it was "unrealistic to expect every attack plan to be stopped".

November 2014

Dissident republicans are believed to have used a home-made rocket launcher in an attack on a police Land Rover at Twaddell Avenue in north Belfast on 16 November .

It struck the Land Rover and caused some damage, but no-one was injured.

Police described the attack as a "cold, calculated attempt to kill police officers".

Meanwhile gardaí described the seizure of guns and bomb-making material during searches in Dublin on 15 November as a "major setback" for dissident republicans.

An AK-47 rifle, a sawn-off shotgun and a number of semi-automatic pistols were found in searches in the Ballymun, East Wall and Cloughran areas of Dublin.

The Irish Army carried out a controlled explosion at one search location where bomb components were discovered.

A device that hit a police vehicle in Derry on 2 November was understood to have been a mortar, fired by command wire.

Dissident republicans were responsible for the attack, police said.

October 2014

Police escaped injury in a planned bomb attack in Strabane

Police foiled an attempted bomb attack in Strabane's Ballycolman estate on 23 October.

Officers were lured to Ballycolman estate on 23 October to investigate reports of a bomb thrown at a police patrol vehicle the previous night.

The alert was a hoax but then a real bomb, packed with nails, was discovered in the garden of a nearby house.

September 2014

Dissident republicans claimed responsibility for a device that partially exploded outside an Orange hall in County Armagh on 29 September.

In a phone call to the Irish News, a group calling itself The Irish Volunteers admitted it placed the device at Carnagh Orange hall in Keady.

June 2014

On 16 June, police investigating dissident republican activity said they recovered two suspected pipe bombs in County Tyrone.

May 2014

On the night of 29 May, a masked man threw what police have described as a "firebomb" into the reception area of the Everglades Hotel, in the Prehen area of Derry.

The hotel was evacuated and the device exploded a short time later when Army bomb experts were working to make it safe.

No-one was injured in the explosion but the reception was extensively damaged.

The man who took the bomb into the hotel said he was from the IRA.

April 2014

A prominent dissident republican was shot dead in west Belfast on 18 April.

Tommy Crossan was shot a number of times at a fuel depot off the Springfield Road.

Mr Crossan, 43, was once a senior figure in the Continuity IRA.

It was believed he had been expelled from the group some years ago after falling out with other dissidents.

March 2014

Police said a bomb found at a County Tyrone golf course had the capability to kill or cause serious injury.

Bomb disposal experts made the device safe after it was discovered at Strabane Golf Club on 31 March.

A Belfast man with known dissident republican links died on 28 March a week after he was shot in a Dublin gun attack.

Declan Smith, 32, was shot in the face by a lone gunman as he dropped his child at a crèche on Holywell Avenue, Donaghmede.

He was wanted by police in Northern Ireland for questioning about the murder of two men in Belfast in 2007.

On the night of 14 March, dissidents use a command wire to fire a mortar at a police Land Rover on the Falls Road in west Belfast.

The device hit the Land Rover, but police said it caused minimal damage.

No-one was injured in the attack.

The dissident group calling itself the New IRA said it carried out the attack and claimed the mortar used contained the military explosive Semtex and a commercial detonator.

February 2014

Seven letter bombs delivered to army careers offices in England bore "the hallmarks of Northern Ireland-related terrorism", Downing Street said.

The packages were sent to offices in Oxford, Slough, Kent, Brighton, Hampshire and Berkshire.

December 2013

On 13 December, a bomb in a sports bag exploded in Belfast's busy Cathedral Quarter.

About 1,000 people were affected by the alert, including people out for Christmas dinners, pub-goers and children out to watch Christmas pantos.

A telephone warning was made to a newspaper, but police said the bomb exploded about 150 metres away as the area was being cleared.

Dissident republican group, Óglaigh na hÉireann, said it was were responsible.

On 5 December, two police vehicles were struck 10 times by gunfire from assault rifles while travelling along the Crumlin Road in north Belfast.

November 2013

A bomb, containing 60kgs (132lbs) of home-made explosives, partially exploded inside a car in Belfast city centre on 24 November.

A masked gang hijacked the car, placed a bomb on board and ordered the driver to take it to a shopping centre.

It exploded as Army bomb experts prepared to examine the car left at the entrance to Victoria Square car park.

No-one was injured.

On 21 November, a bus driver was ordered to drive to a police station in Derry with a bomb on board.

The bus driver drove a short distance to Northland Road, got her passengers off the bus and called the police.

A former police officer is the target of an under-car booby-trap bomb off the King's Road in east Belfast.

The man spotted the device when he checked under his vehicle at Kingsway Park, near Tullycarnet estate on 8 November.

The man was about to take his 12-year-old daughter to school.

October 2013

Dissidents are blamed for a number of letter bomb attacks at the end of the month.

A package addressed to the Northern Ireland secretary was made safe at Stormont Castle, two letter bombs addressed to senior police officers were intercepted at postal sorting offices, and a similar device was sent to the offices of the Public Prosecution Service in Derry.

May 2013

Two police officers escaped injury after two pipe bombs are thrown at them in north Belfast.

The officers were responding to an emergency 999 call in Ballysillan in the early hours of 28 May.

Police were fired on in the Foxes Glen area of west Belfast

They had just got out of their vehicle on the Upper Crumlin Road when the devices were thrown. They took cover as the bombs exploded.

March 2013

Police escaped injury after a bomb in a bin exploded on the Levin Road in Lurgan in County Armagh on 30 March.

Officers were investigating reports of an illegal parade when the device went off near a primary school.

Petrol bombs were thrown at police during follow-up searches in the Kilwilkie area.

Police say a bomb meant to kill or injure officers on the outskirts of Belfast on 9 March may have been detonated by mobile telephone.

Officers were responding to a call on Duncrue pathway near the M5 motorway when the bomb partially exploded.

On 4 March, four live mortar bombs which police said were "primed and ready to go" were intercepted in a van in Derry.

The van had its roof cut back to allow the mortars to be fired. Police say they believed the target was a police station.

It is the first time dissidents had attempted this type of mortar attack.

December 2012

An off-duty policeman found a bomb attached to the underside of his car on the Upper Newtownards Road in east Belfast.

A bomb was found under a police officer's car in east Belfast

The officer found the device during a routine check of his family car on 30 December, as he prepared to take his wife and two children out to lunch.

An Irish newspaper reported that a paramilitary plot to murder a British soldier as he returned to the Republic of Ireland on home leave had been foiled by Irish police.

The Irish Independent said the Continuity IRA planned to shoot the soldier when he returned to County Limerick for his Christmas holidays.

November 2012

On the first day of the month, a prison officer was shot and killed on the M1 in County Armagh as he drove to work at Maghaberry Prison, Northern Ireland's high security jail.

Mr Black was shot as he drove to work at Maghaberry Prison

David Black, 52-year-old father of two, was the first prison officer to be murdered in Northern Ireland in almost 20 years.

On 12 November, a paramilitary group calling itself "the IRA" claimed responsibility for the murder.

The following day, a bomb was found close to a primary school in west Belfast.

Police said the device "could have been an under-car booby trap designed to kill and maim".

September 2012

Security forces were the target of two bombs left in Derry on 20 September.

A pipe bomb and booby trap bomb on a timer were both made safe by the Army.

The pipe bomb was left in a holdall at Derry City Council's office grounds and the booby trap attached to a bicycle chained to railings on a walkway at the back of the offices.

Dissident republicans were blamed for leaving the bombs.

July 2012

On 26 July, some dissident republican paramilitary groups issued a statement saying they were to come together under the banner of "the IRA".

The Guardian newspaper said the Real IRA had been joined by Republican Action Against Drugs (RAAD) and a coalition of independent armed republican groups and individuals.

A gunman fired towards police lines from within a crowd gathered at Brompton Park in Ardoyne on 12 July.

No-one was injured.

June 2012

Republican Action Against Drugs said it was behind a bomb attack on a police vehicle in Derry on 2 June.

The front of the jeep was badly damaged in what is understood to have been a pipe bomb attack in Creggan. The police described the attack as attempted murder.

April 2012

A pipe bomb was left under a car belonging to the elderly parents of a police officer in Derry on 15 April.

A number of homes were evacuated while Army bomb experts dealt with the device at Drumleck Drive in Shantallow.

A 600lb bomb was found in a van on the Fathom Line in Newry

A fully primed 600lb bomb was found in a van on the Fathom Line near Newry on 26 April and made safe the following day.

A senior police officer said those who left it had a "destructive, murderous intent".

Assistant Chief Constable Alastair Finlay said it was as "big a device as we have seen for a long time".

March 2012

On 30 March two men were convicted of murdering police officer Constable Stephen Carroll in Craigavon in March 2009.

Two men were convicted of murdering Constable Stephen Carroll in Craigavon

The 48-year-old officer was shot dead after he and colleagues responded to a 999 call.

Convicted of the murder were Brendan McConville, 40, of Glenholme Avenue, Craigavon, and John Paul Wootton, 20, of Collindale, Lurgan.

February 2012

Derry man Andrew Allen was shot dead in Buncrana, County Donegal, on 9 February.

The 24-year-old father of two was shot at a house in Links View Park, Lisfannon.

Republican Action Against Drugs (RAAD) later admitted it murdered Mr Allen who had been forced to leave his home city the previous year.

January 2012

Strabane man Martin Kelly was jailed for life by the Special Criminal Court in Dublin on 24 January for the murder of a man in County Donegal.

Andrew Burns, 27, from Strabane, was shot twice in the back in February 2008 in a church car park.

The murder was linked to the dissident republican group, Oglaigh na hEireann. Kelly, from Barrack Steet, was also sentenced to eight years in prison for possession of a firearm.

On 20 January, Brian Shivers was convicted of the murders of Sappers Patrick Azimkar and Mark Quinsey at Massereene Barracks in March 2009.

His co-accused Colin Duffy was acquitted.

Police in Derry believed dissident republicans were responsible for two bomb attacks on 19 January.

The bombs exploded at the tourist centre on Foyle Street and on Strand Road, close to the DHSS office, within 10 minutes of each other.

Homes and businesses in the city were evacuated and no-one was injured.

A bomb was left in the soldier's car in north Belfast

A Scottish soldier found a bomb inside his car outside his girlfriend's house in the Ligoniel area of north Belfast.

It is understood the device contained a trip wire attached to the seat belt.

Police say if the bomb had gone off the soldier, and others in the vicinity, could have been killed. Dissidents admitted they carried out the attack.

October 2011

A bomb outside the City of Culture offices was blamed on dissidents

A bomb exploded outside the City of Culture offices in Derry on 12 October.

Security sources said the attack had all the hallmarks of dissident republicans, who damaged a door of the same building with a pipe bomb in January.

September 2011

The Real IRA was blamed for two bomb attacks near Claudy, County Londonderry on 14 September.

One of the bombs exploded outside the family home of a Catholic police officer. No-one was in the house at the time.

The other device was made safe at the home of a retired doctor who works for the police.

May 2011

Two masked men threw a holdall containing a bomb into a Santander bank branch in Derry's Diamond just after midday on Saturday 21 May.

Police cleared the area and the bomb exploded an hour later. No-one was injured.

However, significant damage was caused inside the building.

The grenade was thrown at officers during a security alert

A grenade was thrown at police officers during a security alert at Southway in Derry on 9 May.

The device, which was described as "viable", failed to explode.

Two children were talking to the officers when the grenade was thrown.

The mother of one of them said he could have been killed and whoever threw the grenade must have seen the children.

April 2011

The Real IRA, threatened to kill more police officers and declared its opposition to Queen Elizabeth II's first visit to the Republic of Ireland.

A statement was read out by a masked man at a rally organised by the 32 County Sovereignty Movement in Derry on Easter Monday, 25 April.

A 500lb bomb was left in a van at an underpass on the main Belfast to Dublin road in Newry.

Constable Ronan Kerr was killed after a bomb exploded under his car outside his home in Omagh on 2 April.

No group claimed responsibility for the attack but dissident republicans were blamed.

The 25-year-old had joined the police in May 2010 and had been working in the community for five months.

Northern Ireland Chief Constable Matt Baggott described Constable Kerr as a "modern-day hero".

March 2011

Forensic experts at the scene of Derry courthouse bomb

The PSNI described a bomb left near Bishop Street Courthouse as a "substantial viable device".

District commander Stephen Martin said a beer keg, left in a stolen car, contained around 50kg of home-made explosives.

A number of shots were fired at police officers at Glen Road in Derry on the night of 2 March.

Police said it was an attempt to kill.

December 2010

A policeman found an unexploded grenade outside his home in County Fermanagh.

The device was discovered at the property in Drumreer Road, Maguiresbridge, on 23 December.

A grenade was found outside a police officer's home in County Fermanagh

In the Republic, three men from Northern Ireland were jailed for IRA membership on 15 December.

Gerard McGarrigle, 46, from Mount Carmel Heights in Strabane was sentenced to five years in prison.

Desmond Donnelly, 58, from Drumall, Lisnarick, Fermanagh and Jim Murphy, 63, from Floraville in Enniskillen, were given three years and nine months.

They were arrested in Letterkenny in February after Irish police received a tip-off that dissident republicans were about to carry out a 'tiger' kidnapping

A military hand grenade was used to attack police officers called to a robbery at Shaw's Road in west Belfast on 5 November.

Three police officers were hurt and one of them suffered serious arm injuries when the grenade was thrown by a cyclist.

The dissident paramilitary group Oglaigh na hEireann (ONH) said it was responsible for the attack.

October 2010

The Ulster Bank on Culmore Road was damaged in a car bomb attack in Derry

A car bomb exploded close to the Ulster Bank, shops and a hotel on Derry's Culmore Road on 4 October.

The area had been cleared when the bomb exploded, but the blast was so strong that a police officer who was standing close to the cordon was knocked off his feet.

Lurgan man Paul McCaugherty was jailed for 20 years for a dissident republican gun smuggling plot that was uncovered after an MI5 sting operation.

McCaugherty was found guilty of attempting to import weapons and explosives.

Dermot Declan Gregory from Crossmaglen, was found guilty of making a Portuguese property available for the purpose of terrorism. He was sentenced to four years.

August 2010

Three children suffered minor injuries when a bomb exploded in a bin in Lurgan's North Street on 14 August.

The bomb went off at a junction where police would have been expected to put up a cordon around the school. The explosion injured the children after it blew a hole in a metal fence.

Three children were hurt after a bomb exploded in a bin in Lurgan

A booby trap partially exploded under the car of a former policeman in Cookstown, County Tyrone, on 10 August.

The man was unhurt in the attak.

A bomb was found under the car of a Catholic policewoman in Kilkeel in County Down on 8 August.

It is believed the device fell off the car before being spotted by the officer.

A booby-trap bomb was found in the driveway of a soldier's house in Bangor

On 4 August, booby trap bomb was found under a soldier's car in Bangor.

It then fell off and he discovered it as he was about to leave his home.

A car that exploded outside a police station in Derry contained 200lb of homemade explosives.

No-one was injured in the attack, which happened on 3 August, but several businesses were badly damaged in the blast.

A bomb exploded between Belleeks and Cullyhanna in south Armagh, blowing a crater in the road and damaging a stone bridge on 10 July.

Police viewed it as an attempt to lure them into the area in order to carry out a follow-up ambush.

Dissident republicans were blamed for organising two nights of sustained rioting in the Broadway and Bog Meadows areas of west Belfast on Friday 2 and Saturday 3 July.

Later rioting on 11, 12, 13 and 14 July in south and north Belfast, Lurgan and Derry is also believed to have involved dissidents.

Dissidents were believed to have organised riots in Belfast

Scores of police officers were injured during the violence, which featured gun attacks, petrol bombs and other missiles being thrown.

Shots were fired at Crossmaglen PSNI station on 2 July.

Dissident republicans said they were behind two similar attacks in December and January.

April 2010

A bomb outside Crossmaglen police station was defused

A car bomb exploded outside Newtownhamilton Police Station in County Armagh, injuring two people.

People also reported hearing gunshots before the blast.

There were five pipe bomb attacks on houses in the west of Northern Ireland in a week - two of them claimed by a group calling itself Republican Action Against Drugs.

A car bomb was defused outside Newtownhamilton police station in south Armagh on Tuesday 13 April.

A bomb in a hijacked taxi exploded outside Palace Barracks in Holywood, on Monday 12 April - the day policing and justice powers were transferred to Northern Ireland.

The barracks is home to MI5's headquarters in Northern Ireland.

One man suffered minor injuries.

Police said a car bomb left outside Crossmaglen on Easter Saturday night could have killed or seriously injured anyone in the area.

The bomb - made up of a number of flammable containers - was made safe by Army experts.

February 2010

Kieran Doherty was murdered by the Real IRA

The naked and bound body of 31-year-old Kieran Doherty was found close to the Irish border near Derry on 24 February.

The Real IRA said it killed Mr Doherty who, it claimed, was one of its members.

Two days earlier a bomb damaged the gates of Newry courthouse in County Down.

Officers were evacuating the area when the bomb went off. Police said it was a miracle no-one was killed.

January 2010

A 33-year-old Catholic police officer was seriously injured in a dissident republican car bomb about a mile from his home in Randalstown in County Antrim.

On the last day of the month the Real IRA opened fire on a police station in County Armagh.

No-one was injured in the attack in Bessbrook.

November 2009

Dissident republicans were blamed for leaving a car containing a 400lb (181kg) bomb outside the Policing Board's headquarters in Belfast.

The car, which had been driven through a barrier by two men who then ran off, burst into flames when the device partially exploded.

On the same night, shots were fired during an undercover police operation in the County Fermanagh village of Garrison, in what police described as an attempt to kill a trainee PSNI officer.

One of Northern Ireland's top judges moved out of his Belfast home over fears of a dissident republican threat against him.

October 2009

Democratic Unionist Party politician Ian Paisley junior said police had warned him that dissident republicans were planning to murder him.

Mr Paisley, who was then a member of the Policing Board, said officers contacted him to inform him of the foiled attack.

A police officer's partner was injured when a bomb exploded under her car in east Belfast.

The 38-year-old was reversing the vehicle out of the driveway of a house when the device exploded.

In the same month a bomb exploded inside a Territorial Army base in north Belfast.

The police confirmed that "some blast damage" had occurred inside the base off the Antrim Road and shrapnel from the overnight explosion was found in neighbouring streets.

September 2009

The PSNI said a 600lb (272kg) bomb left near the Irish border in south Armagh was intended to kill its officers.

The bomb was defused by the Army near the village of Forkhill.

Days later the Real IRA claimed responsibility for placing two explosive devices near the homes of a policeman's relatives in Derry.

The first device exploded outside his parents' home while a second device, which was found outside his sister's home, was taken away for examination by the Army.

June 2009

Conor Murphy, then a Sinn Féin MP and minister in Northern Ireland's devolved administration, blamed dissident republicans for an arson attack on his home in south Armagh.

May 2009

Dissident republicans were suspected of involvement in a petrol bomb attack on the Derry home of senior Sinn Féin member Mitchel McLaughlin.

April 2009

Northern Ireland's then Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness said dissident republicans had threatened to kill him.

March 2009

Sappers Patrick Azimkar and Mark Quinsey died in the attack

Two young soldiers were shot dead as they collected pizzas outside Massereene Barracks in County Antrim.

Sappers Patrick Azimkar and Mark Quinsey were killed just hours before they were due to be deployed to Afghanistan.

The Real IRA was blamed for the attack.

Within 48 hours policeman Stephen Carroll was shot dead in Craigavon, County Armagh, becoming the first police officer to be murdered in Northern Ireland since 1998.