A SERIES of "command conventions", where members of IRA brigades meet to select delegates and propose motions, and which precedes the General Army Convention, may already be under way.
Only two General Army Conventions have taken place in the present conflict, in 1970 and in 1986, despite the ruling that it should meet every two years.
When the General Army Convention sits, according to the rules of the IRA, known as the "Green Book", the convention "shall be the supreme Army authority".
This would appear to mean, that, for the duration of the convention, the IRA Army Council cedes power to the convention.
An "extraordinary" General Convention can be called by the IRA's executive, the group of 12 leading figures which also selects the seven member Army Council. The Executive and Army Council keep separate memberships.
The rules also state: "All personnel and all armament, equipment and other resources of Oglaigh na hEireann (the IRA) shall be at the disposal of and subject to the army authority, to be employed and utilised as the army authority shall direct."
As many as 70 delegates may be selected to attend the General Army Convention.
At present, the IRA has a "Northern Command" which operates in what is referred to as the "war zone", an area covering Northern Ireland and the Republic's Border counties. The Southern Command provides logistic support for the IRA in the North and also provides many of the bomb teams which have attacked targets in Britain and on the Continent. There are several "brigades" in the North, with three in Belfast and others like the east Tyrone, south Armagh, Derry and Mid Ulster brigades.
If a majority of Convention members agree an outsider can be invited to address the meeting.
The last General Convention, in 1986, restated the IRA's adherence to "the armed struggle and confidence in the armed struggle as being the means of breaking the British connection and bring about Irish independence".
It reaffirmed "General Army Order No. 8, which prohibits offensive action against the administration in the 26 counties or its Forces."
The convention also endorsed the political strategy launched at that year's Sinn Fein Ardfheis by Mr Gerry Adams to allow party members, elected in general elections in the Republic, to take their seats in the Dail. This precipitated the walk out by a group led by the former Sinn Fein president, Ruairi O Bradaigh, which became Republican Sinn Fein.