REAL IRA leader Michael McKevitt is likely to spend only the next 13 years of his 20-year prison sentence behind bars. 
The veteran republican - convicted of directing a terrorist organisation and being a member of the Real IRA - was sentenced to 20 years in jail by the Special Criminal Court yesterday.

However, his sentence was backdated to March 29, 2001 because he has been in custody on remand since that date.
And with 25pc remission of his sentence due under law, the terrorist looks set to spend a total of only 13 years in Portlaoise Prison.

Under the 1947 Prison Rules, every prisoner has a statutory right to 25pc remission of sentence and only lose this right if they commit acts of bad behaviour while in jail.

It means McKevitt could be out of prison in 2016. 

Yesterday the terrorist mastermind, who claims he was the victim of a political show trial, refused to leave his cell as the three judges at the non-jury court in Dublin passed sentence.

McKevitt later emerged, wearing a blue polo shirt and cream trousers, and declared: "I would like to apply for leave to appeal.";
But when he failed to give a reason, the judges rejected his call. It's understood he has two weeks in which to take his case to the Court of Criminal Appeal.

McKevitt will serve his sentence at Portlaoise Prison, the State's only high-security jail and the committal prison for the Special Criminal Court.
The jail is home to some of the State's most notorious drug dealers, including John Gilligan and Patrick 'Dutchy' Holland, as well as members of terror organisations, including the INLA, IRA, Real IRA and Continuity IRA. 

With an inmates population of 136, the jail is well under its capacity. However, it is purposely kept that way for security reasons. All the various factions are held in separate parts of the jail. 

McKevitt will have a single cell in the same block as Liam Campbell, former Real IRA director of operations, who is awaiting trial on a charge of membership of the IRA on July 29, 2001. 

Campbell (40), a married father of two from Upper Faughart, Dundalk, Co Louth, is being sued by relatives of victims of the 1998 Omagh bombing in a civil action. He is serving a five-year sentence for membership of an illegal organisation on another occasion, in October, 2000. 

However, while McKevitt will join around 40 other Real IRA inmates, the row between him and Campbell has left the organisation bitterly divided. 

And prison authorities have ruled that the two dissidents be kept apart. While they are both to be kept in E block - they are in different parts of it, according to the authorities. 

The Victorian prison is in many ways like Dublin's Mountjoy jail and with no in-cell toilets, the practice of "slopping out" still applies at Portlaoise. 

Each cell has a television, usually bought by the prisoner, and the rules regarding lock-up time are standard: at 8.15am the inmate is allowed go and get breakfast and eat it in his cell. 

At 9.15am the inmates are unlocked to go to their in-house employment, training or education. Lock-up time is 8pm. 

Inmates of Portlaoise Prison have ready access to education, including Open University courses. Traditionally the jail has a higher-than-average rate of prisoners availing of education. 

While the average across the board is 50pc, at Portlaoise Prison it is a high 60pc. 

Visiting is restricted to one visit per week per prisoner - although a second visitor can be applied for through the governor of the jail.