Real IRA splinter group says it killed Northern Ireland man; body found semi-naked by roadside

Real IRA faction says it ‘executed’ NIreland man

DUBLIN — The Real IRA splinter group says it killed a Catholic civilian whose semi-naked body was found handcuffed and dumped near the Irish border.

The leaders of Northern Ireland’s Catholic-Protestant government united Thursday to condemn the gang that shot 31-year-old Ciaran Doherty fatally through the head.

The killing — the first by the Real IRA since it gunned down two off-duty British soldiers last March — mirrored how the outlawed Irish Republican Army once abducted and tortured its enemies, dumping their stripped bodies on roadsides.

The Real IRA seeks to unravel the 1997 IRA cease-fire and Northern Ireland power-sharing. But Martin McGuinness, the government’s senior Catholic and a former IRA commander, denounced the dissidents’ “stupid and futile acts.”