IRA Quartermaster General

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The IRA Quartermaster General (QMG) runs a department which is responsible for obtaining, concealing and maintaining the store of weaponry of the Irish Republican Army.

In the Provisional IRA, the QMG department is the largest and most important of the IRA's departments, involving around twenty per cent of its manpower. It works closely with the IRA Engineering Department, which has developed an array of home-made rockets and mortars.

A number of people have held the post of QMG. In 1997, the then QMG, Michael McKevitt broke away from the Provisional IRA in 1997 to form the Real IRA, a paramilitary group. This defection of this QMG was significant, as he arranged the transfer of weaponry to his breakaway organisation.