{"id":7942,"date":"2019-06-12T11:19:20","date_gmt":"2019-06-12T15:19:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/?p=7942"},"modified":"2019-06-13T08:21:02","modified_gmt":"2019-06-13T12:21:02","slug":"billy-mckee-one-of-the-founding-members-of-the-provisional-ira-dies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/?p=7942","title":{"rendered":"Billy McKee, One of the Founding Members of the Provisional IRA Dies"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"One of the founding members of the Provisional IRA has died aged in his late nineties.<\/p>\n

Billy McKee led the organisation in Belfast at one stage.<\/p>\n

He split from Sinn F\u00e9in decades ago and condemned the signing of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement and the decommissioning of paramilitary weapons.<\/p>\n

McKee enjoyed legendary status among republicans at the start of the Troubles when he took to the streets of west Belfast after loyalist attacks in 1969.<\/p>\n

He joined the Provisionals after the IRA\u2019s move towards Marxism in the 1960s.<\/p>\n

The veteran republican was also involved in a gun battle with loyalists attacking the Catholic Short Strand in east Belfast.<\/p>\n

Following his split with Sinn F\u00e9in he joined the Republican Sinn F\u00e9in party.<\/p>\n

It said: \u201cRepublican Sinn F\u00e9in send its deepest sympathy to the family and comrades of IRA Volunteer Billy McKee who died this morning.\u201d<\/p>\n

McKee led a hunger strike in 1972 in a bid to win recognition for IRA prisoners as political prisoners.<\/p>\n

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