Luck 'o the Irish

Gerry Adams has called for the IRA to put down their weapons and stop the war, it is time to seek other ways for the Republicans to get a change in Ulster without weapons in hand.
Although I welcome this play by Mr Adams, I am not particularly fond of his statement
"Against mighty odds you held the line and faced down a huge military foe, the British crown forces and their surrogates in the unionist death squads,"

The IRA, or actually Provisional IRA as they are known, is nothing more than a terrorist organisation, they should not be hailed as freedom fighters as the IRA was know under the Easter uprising, or during the time of the Irish Volunteers or Irish Citizens Army. In 1921 Ulster voted to stay in Britain and the rest voted to seceded, they created what is now known as Republic of Ireland.

However, it seems to be an end to yet another terrorist organisation now, for some time the pIRA has been dismantling, even though some factions have kept up the noice like the Real IRA and the bombings of Omagh, there has been serious consideration by pIRA to lay down their arms and let Gerry Adams and Sinn Fein talk to the Brits.

The straw that finally broke the camels back was the bank robbery of the Northern Bank and the unprovoked killing of Mr McCartney outside a pub in Northern Belfast. The murder changed the normally silent majority against the pIRA and it is in this light that Mr Adams calls for the pIRA to lay down their arms and pursue a peaceful resolution of the conflict. In his own words:

"Since then there has been a vicious campaign of vilification against republicans, driven in the main by the Irish government," said Mr Adams - referring to Dublin naming him as a member of the ruling IRA Army Council.

So the struggle, he said, "can now be taken forward by other means". And he posed a question for the IRA: "Can you take courageous initiatives which will achieve your aims by purely political and democratic activity?"

All we need now is for Ian Paisley to step down. He is spreading his poison into the peace process and I view him as much of a show stopper for real talks as I viewed Arafat in the Middle East. Perhaps if we can get the Brits to silence Paisley and start some real talks we can see the chance for lasting peace in North Ireland and perhaps even Taoiseach Ahern will support a vote for reunification of Ulster to the other counties on Ireland. Time will tell...
Read the article in full about this story

Sincerely
Mr Silence Dogood