What is it that makes that headline so unsurprising and so ordinary to readers from Northern Ireland? Can you imagine an American court carrying on like this in the current climate?

Nevertheless, I came back from a brief holiday to discover this morning that three convicted terrorists, who were attempting to buy guns, rocket-propelled grenades and 5 tonnes of explosives for the "Real" IRA have had their sentences reduced, amazingly only a matter of days after a series of bombs rocked London! Earlier in the week the same 3 judges had quashed an application to appeal against the conviction but apparently believe that 30 years behind bars is too hard on the poor terrorists who were only trying to by weapons that could be used to kill thousands of people.

The men travelled to an Arab restaurant in Slovakia where they were taped and filmed as they tried to order 5,000kg of plastic explosives, 2,000 detonators, 200 rocket-propelled grenades and 500 handguns – writing their "order" on a napkin! How they can act so casually as they try to acquire weapons to murder and main innocent people I don't know, but then again they're from the same stock as the scum who detonated out the Omagh bomb, killing 29 people.

The 3 Real IRA members were caught in an MI5 sting where officers posed as Iraqi intelligence agents and arms dealers. The Court of Appeal in London has thankfully rejected applications for leave to appeal from the 3 County Louth psychopaths. Yep, these men who want to dictate the future of Northern Ireland aren't even from this country – although that seems to be the norm for the "Real" IRA.

Follow up:

All were given thirty year prison sentences, which would see the youngest of them aged 71 once the full term was over. The judges at the Court of Appeal reduced all three sentences to 28 years, and I don't believe for a second they'll serve nearly that.

I can't believe these lowlife bastards think they deserve any leniency, let alone a court agreeing with them. After their application for appeal against the conviction was dismissed, the men's lawyer tried to say the sentence was too harsh! They went abroad solely to procure enough weaponry to maim and murder hundreds and thousands of innocent and unsuspecting people; they're lucky to be living in a country that doesn't use the death penalty.