The security service has urged members of the New IRA to take 'better paths' in a Spotify-wrapped style video message after the latest car bomb attack in Belfast. MI5 sent suspects a one-minute reel to coax them into quitting - containing snips of newspaper articles showing police raids, criminal convictions and controversies involving the group.
MI5's Video Message
The video highlights bomb attacks, drug running and extortion rackets impacting vulnerable people and asks 'is this what you want done in your name? There are better paths to take'. It appears to signal a follow up to warning messages sent by the intelligence agency last year telling republican dissidents they would face financial sanctions if they did not stop raising money for the New IRA.
MI5's video, sent this year, contains a number of news articles from 2025 and says: 'Another year - what has threatening and exploiting the vulnerable achieved? Ask yourself: aren't you also being exploited? I doubt your "leadership" are thinking about you when they are on multiple holidays a year. Is this still the activity you want done in your name? There are better paths to take.' Several news articles flash on the screen showing negative incidents and coverage of the group. The clip ends: 'Is this what you want done in your name? Real change starts with you.'
Previous Warnings
The tactic of MI5 reaching out to dissident republicans on their phones is not new with The Sunday Times reporting in November that the security service had sent texts warning anyone continuing to fundraise would face 'financial and legal repercussions'. It read: 'We believe you're fundraising for the New IRA, and your actions are not as anonymous as you think. We want to encourage you to step away from this - and to think about the impact that you are having. Our message to you is that if you continue to support the New IRA's violent campaign you're not just putting yourself at risk; you're putting your family, friends and the wider community at risk. If you are willing to disengage, then we are willing to help you achieve that.'
Sir Ken McCallum, the director-general of MI5, had said in October: 'We will continue, with the police, to bear down on residual threats and degrade terrorist capabilities.'
Car Bomb Attack in Belfast
Yesterday, police said a car bomb outside Belfast Police Station appeared to be the work of the group, which had aimed to kill officers. The explosion in Dunmurry, southwest of the Northern Irish capital, took place at around 10.50pm on Saturday after a 'gas cylinder-type device' was placed in a delivery driver's hijacked car and driven to the location. Two babies were among residents evacuated when the car bomb detonated, sending debris across the street.
Saturday's explosion in Belfast came weeks after another attempted bombing, when the device failed to explode outside a police station in the nearby town of Lurgan, with the New IRA claiming responsibility for that attack. So-called dissident republicans are pro-united Ireland individuals and groups who do not accept the landmark 1998 peace deal that largely ended three decades of sectarian conflict known as the 'Troubles'.
'There are very many similarities between the two incidents and... our early working hypothesis is that this may well be the work of the New IRA,' deputy chief constable Bobby Singleton of the Police Service of Northern Ireland said. The PSNI's terrorism investigation unit has launched an attempted murder investigation.
Writing on X, Sir Keir Starmer said yesterday: 'I utterly condemn last night's attack on Dunmurry police station,' adding those responsible would be brought to justice. Videos circulated on social media showing the vehicle on fire at the police station around midnight. Fire crews and police worked to put out the blaze.
Politicians denounced the incident, with Northern Ireland's First Minister Michelle O'Neill, from the pro-Irish unity Sinn Fein party, saying those behind the attack 'speak for absolutely no one'.
The New IRA is the largest republican group opposing British presence in Northern Ireland. The group have carried out multiple attacks against the British Army and the PSNI. They took responsibility for the murder of journalist Lyra McKee, who was shot in the head in Derry in 2019, and for the attempted murder of Detective Chief Inspector John Caldwell in Omagh in 2023.
