Across Londonderry, dozens of mobile phones simultaneously buzzed with WhatsApp messages from an unknown British number at 5pm on New Year's Day.
But these weren't messages from friends and family wishing them a happy and healthy 2025 – it was the MI5 spies' latest attempt to disrupt, destabilize and destroy the New IRA.
Britain's secret services are using text messages to contact suspected terrorists and their loved ones, and it has apparently 'rattled' them.
MI5 sent WhatsApps to 25 people they believe are members of the New IRA in Londonderry at 5pm on January 1, a time when most would be home with their families to celebrate the start of the new year.
Their main target is alleged New IRA boss Thomas Ashe Mellon, a burly, bearded Republican fanatic dubbed 'the New Martin McGuinness', who was lampooned in the WhatsApp apparently sent to him and his circle.
'Another year; what has been achieved by threatening and exploiting the vulnerable? Ask yourself: aren't you being exploited too?', the New Year's text said.
“I doubt your 'leadership' even considers you taking the risks when they have multiple vacations a year.”
'It's 2025, is this still the activity you want to have done in your name? There are better paths to take.”
British spies believe that members of the terror group and the republican community in their stronghold in Londonderry are becoming increasingly unhappy with Mellon.
Police and security expert, former senior RUC and PSNI officer, Alan McQuillan, told MailOnline: 'It has been very clear for some time that the security forces and PSNI have had a huge impact on the dissidents.
“The dissidents are essentially criminal gangs and the PSNI and the security services have in many respects been gradually crushing them.”
The terror group is said to have stepped up loan sharking activities in Londonderry, forcing vulnerable people, as well as those with drinking and drug problems, into debt and then forcing them to hide the terror group's weapons and other weapons.
MI5 has attempted to abuse these divisions by using their systems to send generic text messages at a time when insiders have told MailOnline that the security services believe the New IRA is 'falling apart'.
Thomas Ashe Mellon (2nd right) during an Easter Remembrance Parade in Belfast in 2023
New IRA graffiti in the aftermath of Lyra McKee's murder. The group is said to be 'not done', but security sources and politicians claim they are in disarray
MI5 started sending these blanket messages in 2024 – and believes it is paying off, according to Ireland's Sunday World, which is why they did it again on January 1.
A source told the newspaper: 'It was sent to 25 people on New Year's Day. It will strike a chord with Mellon.
“People in town have grown tired of him and his gang.”
On Halloween last year, text messages were sent to suspected New IRA members and their relatives urging them to speak to MI5 and give them information.
The first said: 'This is MI5. We are aware that you and your associates are storing illegal weapons and equipment on behalf of the IRA. We will try to get these items back.”
Just ten minutes later, another text message was sent – this time only to alleged members of the terror group.
'This is MI5, we are aware that DRs are [Dissident Republicans] pressure financially vulnerable community members to store equipment on their behalf,” the report said.
'Is this you and you want to talk, call this number'.
The so-called New Irish Republican Army was formed in 2012 from the ashes of the IRA and the Real IRA, which fell apart in the wake of the Good Friday Agreement.
Saoradh, which means 'liberation' in Irish, is a far-left political party and pressure group founded in 2016 by dissident Irish republicans.
Thomas Ashe Mellon calls himself a Saoradh activist and denies being a member of the New IRA.
Saoradh publicly insists that the body is a separate entity from the New IRA terror group.
Yet the PSNI thinks differently and has referred to the 'significant overlap' in the leadership of the two groups.
The fringe party's membership is minuscule compared to mainstream republicans Sinn Fein – considered a 'sell-out' by Saoradh hardliners – but its radical propaganda and appeal, especially among disaffected youth, is causing alarm.
The group calls Irish nationalism an 'unfinished revolution' and strongly opposes the Good Friday Agreement.
In online posts, Saoradh has even claimed that “armed struggle” is inevitable “as long as imperialism remains the dominant power.”
The New IRA happily admits one of its henchmen fired the bullet that killed campaigner and journalist Lyra McKee in 2019 – but insists the sniper killed her 'accidentally' and later apologised.
Two men have been charged with her murder. Their trial date has not been set.
Membership is said to have been declining in recent years as Northern Ireland continues its post-The Troubles.
Many of the leaders are in court or in prison.
Mellon faced the Crown Court last year on two charges relating to a dissident republican parade in Londonderry.
He refused to appear on a show in which he does not recognize the British legal system, but has reportedly applied for legal aid. He must stand trial.
Londonderry-based SDLP politician Colum Eastwood recently warned that a significant number of his voters had approached him 'with reports that dissident-linked loan sharks have been pressuring vulnerable people'.
The Foyle MP, a former leader of the party who now heads the New Ireland Commission on Irish Unity, told MailOnline: 'It is clear that their organization has fallen apart.
“Individuals attached to and addicted to crime such as loan sharking and sexual abuse, who have deliberately targeted vulnerable people in our community, have no interest in a better future for our people and have no place in our city or our society.
“These groups have no strategy, they have no substantive support and it is time for them to step down and stop threatening our community.”
Others have said that the New IRA is on its last legs but remains dangerous.
Lyra McKee was shot dead by dissident republicans while observing riots in Londonderry. The New IRA admitted killing her but apologized and claimed it was 'an accident'
UUP justice spokesman Doug Beattie MC MLA said: 'Dissident republican groups, including the New IRA, are in disarray for a number of reasons.
“First, they are full of crime; from drug trafficking to money lending and sexual exploitation of women and young girls, including coercive control.
'The leadership of the New IRA is facing terrorism charges and is likely to end up behind bars.
'Add to this the fact that these groups simply have no community support in nationalist areas, apart from a few die-hard older men trying to maintain their status, some dewy-eyed romantics and some vulnerable children who are easily led and abused.
'To add to their misery, Mi5's 'information operations' campaign is working to undermine dissident groups, including the New IRA.
'It targets not only their leadership, but also the rank and file, who are doing the dog's work by destroying any semblance of credibility or authority.
'Over time, the New IRA and other republican terrorist groups will disband as individuals end up in prison, unemployed or ostracized by the community they claim to represent.
'The MI5 campaign puts this in clear terms: it is time that these individuals realized the futility of their amateur terrorist campaign and started making a positive contribution to society.'
New statistics published in December show that there have been fewer bombings, shootings and paramilitary attacks across Northern Ireland in the 12 months to 30 November 2024 than in the previous year.
Proactive efforts to tackle terrorist activities, in addition to community support, have also led to 66 security-related arrests since December 2023.
Alan McQuillan warned: 'It doesn't mean they won't try to get back up and recover.
'There are stories of them trying to get weapons and funding from abroad, but in Northern Ireland they are increasingly seen as an afterthought.
'That doesn't mean there aren't small groups of individuals who are very dangerous.
'That risk remains, but it often involves defending one's own territory.
“They have the psychology that they were the true heirs after the second Dáil collapsed, and used this to justify their campaign.
'They cling to that and try to give themselves a kind of pseudo-legitimacy.
'They are regularly arrested and are very well aware of the police and security services.
'Their main industry is drug trafficking.
“A former Garda Commissioner spoke about it with a twist. She said they are using the cloak of terrorism as a cover for their terrorist activities.
'All this does not mean that they have disappeared.
“There is always room for small groups to commit acts of terrorism, but there is no indication that they can conduct a full-fledged campaign.”
