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'Historic' IRA Statement "Ends Armed Campaign"
Yep folks, that moment you've all been waiting for. No, not lunchtime, I'm just finished thanks.
The provisional IRA have stated that they're ending the "armed campaign" (read terrorist bloodfest) that they forced on this country for 35 years. Isn't that nice?
It's not really news, since we've all known it was coming since Gerry Adams' election speech historic statement, but nonetheless expect reems of coverage on the evening news tonight.
"The leadership of Óglaigh na hÉireann [I think that translates literally as Army of Ireland - but they mean the IRA] has formally ordered an end to the armed campaign."
They were supposed to do this years ago, but better late than never. Now we've come to realise over the past few years that words from the IRA are often meaningless, so you'll forgive me if I wait for actions rather than words. No mention the photographs that the DUP wanted to see - that'll keep Big Ian happy anyway, an excuse to play for more time. Not that I blame him for being sceptical, we all know Sinn Fein's IRA have lied before and will likely lie again, just the photo was a bit of a red herring.
One thing I'll be interested to see is how much of a surge there is in membership of the "dissident" flavours of IRA. I can only urge loyalists not to give folk any excuse to join up. The IRA are, possibly rightly, worried about attacks on republican areas. Don't give the militant fringes in these areas an excuse to dominate or we'll all pay the price.
The full statement is on page 2.
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