The 32-County Sovereignty Movement has defended its decision to hold its a.g.m. this weekend at a Co Louth hotel. About 100 people are expected to attend. One of the speakers is understood to be the Irish-American lawyer, Mr Martin Galvin, a former Noraid publicity director.
The meeting, which will be held in the Carrickdale Hotel, Dundalk, has been condemned by relatives of those killed in the "Real IRA" 1998 Omagh bomb.
Security sources say the movement is the political wing of the "Real IRA", a claim the group denies. Mr Michael Gallagher, whose son, Aidan, was killed in the bomb, said: "We are horrified to think this so-called political grouping has decided to re-emerge and promote their form of fundamentalist republicanism." Ms Bernadette Sands McKevitt of the Sovereignty Movement said: "We are not re-emerging from anywhere. We held an annual general meeting last year."