Bernadette Sands McKevitt

Bernadette Sands McKevitt (born in November 1958[1]) is an Irish republican, and a founding member of the 32 County Sovereignty Movement.[2][3]

Early life

She lived in the mainly loyalist Rathcoole area of Newtownabbey before her family were forced out of their home, when they moved to republican West Belfast.[4] She is the younger sister of Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) hunger striker Bobby Sands.[5]

Personal life

Her husband was Michael McKevitt, the Quartermaster General of the IRA and later a founding member of an anti-Good Friday Agreement splinter group commonly known as the Real Irish Republican Army.[5] Bernadette and Michael had three children together and lived in Dundalk in the Republic of Ireland.[6] Michael died in January 2021 after a long illness with cancer.[7]

Following the Omagh bombing, McKevitt reportedly received hostile messages while running her t-shirt printing business in Dundalk, which traumatised her and led to her calling a local priest.[8] The locals forced her and her husband out of the business, though both of them have strongly denied having anything to do with the attack in Omagh. In March 2001, McKevitt and her husband were arrested by the Gardaí in Dundalk in a paramilitary investigation,[9] but were not charged.

References
  1. O'Hearn, Denis (2006). Bobby Sands: Nothing but an Unfinished Song. Pluto Books. p. 3. ISBN 0-7453-2572-6.
  2. "The bombers have blown a hole in more than the BBC". The Guardian. 5 March 2001.
  3. "Links with terror group rejected". BBC. 17 August 1997.
  4. "Father of Maze hunger striker Bobby Sands dies at the age of 91". Belfast Newsletter. Retrieved 25 September 2014.
  5. "Bobby Sands film fuels argument over Sinn Fein 'sell-out'". Belfast Telegraph. 22 May 2008.
  6. Village.IE.Interview with Bernadette Sands 1 February 1998, retrieved 1 October 2008
  7. . RTÉ. 2 January 2021 https://www.rte.ie/news/ireland/2021/0102/1187366-mckevitt-death/. Retrieved 2 January 2021. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  8. "People of Dundalk turn their backs on the McKevitts". The Irish Times.
  9. Cowan, Rosie; correspondent, Ireland (30 March 2001). "Michael and Bernadette Sands McKevitt arrested" – via www.theguardian.com.
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