Monday, September 26, 2005

IRA puts guns and bombs 'beyond use'

Today the IRA put its weapons beyond use. You can read about it here on the BBC website. I guess this is a step forward, but I'm not sure. The IRA has gone back on its word before. We have no pictures of the decommissioning.

But I do believe that some weapons were put beyond use. Just how, I don't know. And we really have no idea if they've done them all. I reckon they were just last year's unfashionable guns. Plastic explosives are just so 90s.

The leader of the Democratic Unionist Party, currently the main Unionist (Protestant) party in Northern Ireland, Ian Paisley has said

...there had been no transparent verification of IRA decommissioning in the announcement.

He said the church witnesses had been agreed by the IRA and as such could not be considered "independent".

Without a photographic proof, an inventory and details on how the weapons were destroyed questions remained, said Mr Paisley.

"This afternoon the people of Northern Ireland watched a programme which illustrates more than ever the duplicity and dishonesty of the two governments and the IRA."


The Rev. Paisley can be a little repugnant, but he's often spot on the money predicting the behaviour of the IRA. Of course, if you expect the worst of people committed to using terror to gain their aims, you're not often wrong.

3 comments:

Vol Abroad said...

I'm not going to defend the criminal activities of LVF, UVF, etc.

But the IRA was protecting those who can't protect themselves by blowing people up in England? at Harrods, the shopping district of Manchester? Or Spanish tourists in Omagh?

Nope. Sorry. Don't buy it.

Not only that, but even in the last couple of weeks members of the IRA have been beating up friends of murdered Robert McCartney.

We're living in a new world, O'girl, where sympathy with terrorists just doesn't cut it anymore.

Anonymous said...

I love IRA supporters explaining how the Provisional IRA only attacked military targets - because Harrods was a military department store, right.

IRA supporters are no better than Al Qaeda supporters in my book, whatever Tony Blair and the Labour party says.

Anonymous said...

That said, I'd like to see the Loyalist terrorist organisations destroyed/disbanded along with their weapons, yup, same as the IRA(s), INLA etc. Growing up in NI I despised the Loyalist terrorists even more than I despised the IRA, after all their crimes were done in my name, which makes it much more personal in my book. Likewise I despise the crimes of the current US government, the moreso because I hold them to a higher standard than Al-Qaeda, because they claim to be acting in my name. Don't torture petty thieves in my name. Don't slaughter civilian car occupants in the name of "Force Protection".

Sometimes it's tough being a centrist.