Bernadette Sands McKevitt


Bernadette Sands McKevitt is an Irish republican, and a founding member of the 32 County Sovereignty Movement.

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. She is the younger sister of Provisional Irish Republican Army hunger striker Bobby Sands. She was unable to attend his funeral because she was on the run at the time.

Personal

Her husband Michael McKevitt was 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. Bernadette and Michael McKevitt have three children and live in Dundalk in the Republic.
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. 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, but were not charged.