Although it seems incongruous that an extremist organisation capable of causing the horror of the Omagh bombing would not have the wherewithal to steal a car, it seems the `Real IRA' had to use the services of ordinary criminals to acquire the vehicles for its bombs.
Like the other dissident extremist group, the Continuity IRA, the `Real IRA' has quite sophisticated explosives-handling skills. The organisation consists largely of ex-Provisional IRA bomb-makers who can construct large and powerful car bombs, mortars and incendiary bombs. But both organisations failed to attract the people with the skills for attacking security force targets and the minor, but important, tasks such as hijacking vehicles for use in bomb attacks.
Most of the people with these skills are Northerners, many of whom perfected their techniques as children and teenagers during the street disturbances of the 1970s and 1980s. Almost none of the republicans with these coal-face skills joined the dissidents.
As a result, it appears the `Real IRA' has had to hire outsiders with these skills. In Co Louth and south Armagh, gardai believe the group has used members of the Irish National Liberation Army based in Dundalk and Newry to steal cars.
On June 24th last the INLA claimed responsibility for the car-bomb attack which caused widespread damage in the village of Newtownhamilton, Co Armagh. It is believed INLA members in the area stole the car and drove it to the target after members of the `Real IRA' provided them with the bomb.
INLA members are also suspected of having provided the van used in the mortar attack in Newry on July 23rd, when a missile containing 200lb of explosive misfired and travelled on a few yards in a car-park in the commercial centre of the town. It was only by luck that the mortar did not cause extensive civilian casualties.
These two attacks, and most of the other actions by the `Real IRA', demonstrate that it was posing an ever-increasing danger to the civilian population. The discovery of a 1,400lb car bomb in Armagh during the worst of the loyalist violence over Drumcree led to Garda warnings to the Government about the increasing threat from this group.
Before Omagh the Garda Commissioner, Mr Pat Byrne, had already directed that a major offensive be launched against the `Real IRA'.
Also before Omagh, the Garda Special Branch had been closely monitoring the methods used by the group to acquire the cars and commercial vehicles needed to deliver its bombs to their targets. As well as the links with the INLA, the `Real IRA' was also acquiring vehicles from what appear to have been ordinary criminals in the Dublin region.
It was observed that the group initially used particular vehicles. BMW 5 series cars and four-wheel-drive, all-terrain vehicles such as Mitsubishi Pajeros were used on several occasions.
The other dissident republican group, the Continuity IRA, had also used all-terrain vehicles in the three or four bomb attacks it mounted between 1995 and 1997. This group was hopeless at hijacking or stealing cars. Its leader, Michael Hegarty, was finally arrested in October 1996 and two large bombs were seized by gardai after he was followed almost nightly for over a month touring the suburbs of Dublin for a suitable four-wheel-drive vehicle to steal.
The `Real IRA' appeared to have a better modus operandi and to have had a ready source of stolen cars and four-wheel-drives. The Garda investigation of the source of its vehicles is understood to have led to the discovery of links between the group and "ordinary" criminals involved in this State's very large organised rackets in stolen cars and car parts.
It also led to a man who is now believed to be one of the key `Real IRA' figures. He lives in Co Kildare and is believed to be the link between the extremists and the car thieves. He was already known to gardai as a member of a major criminal racket in disposing of stolen cars either intact or broken into parts.
The cars are stolen to order by members of Dublin rings. These are usually based around criminal families who send their young men out, mostly at night, into the city's more affluent suburbs to collect the cars ordered by the breakers or, in the past year, an emerging new extremist organisation.
According to Dublin detectives, the car thieves are unlikely to know or care about the final destination of the cars they steal. Several of the families who have been involved in the business have moved into drugs in the past two years since gardai broke up the big Dublin drugs gang which was responsible for the murder of journalist Veronica Guerin.
Other gang leaders were forced into exile because of the anti-drugs and anti-racketeering legislation.
One officer close to the Omagh investigation observed that there are parallel interests between organised criminals and extremists on this island, pointing out that so long as major Garda resources are directed towards fighting political extremists there are fewer resources to direct against the traffickers who are, again, successfully importing large amounts of drugs into the country.
Garda management has set up a very large investigation into the `Real IRA'. The initial stages will involve trawling for information about likely suspects.
As with the investigation into the Veronica Guerin murder, it is also expected that groups of arrests will take place with suspects or their accomplices being held for questioning while detectives build up a picture of the organisation and the key figures in it.
In the Guerin investigation detectives based at the incident room in Lucan Garda Station arrested more than 200 people, including the entire network of gang members and their associates and many of their relatives.
It is expected that the Omagh investigation, which is based on both sides of the Border, may be the largest and most detailed ever. The Garda investigation is under the direction of Assistant Commissioner Kevin Carty, and will be involved in operations throughout the State against the `Real IRA' in co-ordination with the Special Branch in Dublin.
Mr Carty is a former Special Branch officer who also served in the old Murder Squad and led the Garda National Drugs Unit when it was formed three years ago. He is responsible for the Northern Region, covering Cos Donegal, Leitrim, Cavan and Monaghan. As the Omagh bomb vehicle was stolen in his region, he has the bulk of the responsibility for the investigation.
Although it appears there is a concentration of resources in the Northern Region, gardai in Co Louth - which is in the Garda Eastern Region - who played a leading role in the previously successful operations against the extremist group are expected again to provide a very significant input into the investigation.
The man who leads the `Real IRA' and some of the figures suspected of making the bomb are based in the north Louth and south Armagh area.
The Garda Eastern Region is commanded by Assistant Commissioner Tony Hickey, who led the investigation into the Guerin assassination and has probably more experience than any other officer in managing major investigations.