Mr Martin Galvin, the American former fundraiser and lobbyist for the Provisional republican movement, is to address a meeting of anti-Belfast Agreement dissident republicans in the Border area today.
He is the guest speaker at the annual general meeting of the 32-County Sovereignty Movement, which is seen as politically close to the dissident republican group, the "Real IRA".
The group is holding its conference in the Carrickdale Hotel, north of Dundalk and just south of the Border at Drumadd.
It is the first time that the group has held a conference in what has traditionally been seen as a Provisional republican heartland. According to local republican sources, the holding of the conference is being seen as a challenge to the dominance of the Provisional republicans in the area.
There is also reported to be continuing bad feeling between republicans in the south Armagh area over the developments emanating from the Belfast Agreement, including Sinn Fein's participation in government in the North and the IRA's promise to allow its arms dumps to be inspected on behalf of Gen de Chastelain's International Commission on Decommissioning.
That decision by the IRA is reported to have led one of its leading explosives experts in the Border area to defect to the dissidents. This Dundalk man is known to have the ability to design and build effective mortars and is expected to help the dissidents perfect the "Mark 19" 120mm, which has already been used in one attack on a British army post in Co Fermanagh.
According to the local sources, there has been a drift of members away from the Provisional IRA in south Armagh to the point now where the Provisionals' position is being challenged in some former strongholds, particularly around Dumintee and Forkhill. Dissident republicans in the area are still angry at the attempt by the Provisional IRA to crush them in the aftermath of the Omagh bombing atrocity in which a "Real IRA" bomb killed 29 civilians. After the bombing, the Provisional IRA brought members from Belfast into the area and beat up several of the dissidents in their homes. Today's conference is being seen as a rallying point for the anti-agreement elements and there will be considerable interest among both the republican community and security forces on both sides of the Border in how many people it attracts.
Speakers at the conference are expected to include Ms Bernadette Sands-McKevitt, sister of hunger striker Bobby Sands and the Omagh councillor, Mr Francis Mackey.