IRAther be fishin'?Follow

Linky.

DUBLIN, Ireland The Irish Republican Army is committed to nonviolent politics and has shut down key units responsible for weapons-making, arms smuggling and training, an expert panel reported Wednesday, in dramatic findings designed to spur a revival of Catholic-Protestant cooperation in Northern Ireland.

I was listening to some discussion around this on NPR this morning. I'd be interested to know the opinions of Brits on this board. I find it hard to believe the faction would suddenly become committed to peace, but then again, has anyone really been living in fear of the IRA at all this past decade?

Me more than you, slim.

The Good Friday Agreement was quie amazing in the way it gave the IRA real incentives to put down weapons in favour of political power. It was a compehensive agreement that touched upon loads of issues, not just the political process, but the whole way of life. It created new institutions, changed things like how the polie were recruited, etc...

It is quiet incredible that it hs, in many ways, worked so well. But this is also, partly, because the IRA had specific political goals, that were not completely irrealistic. They were struggling for independence, or joining Ireland. By giving them a chance to achieve these goals through the political process (carrot), and imposing sanctions if violence was committed (stick), they were given a viable way out of violence, which in the end, did not help anyone.

Today, it's working, well, pretty well. Sure, there are constant set-backs, from bank robberies by the IRA, to Parlimant being bugged, through MI5 spies being uncovered, there's rarely a dull moment. But on the whole, it is quite an astonishing success. Large-scale violence has gone. Terorism has gone. there are still some die-hard splinter groups, like Paulsol said, like the REAL IRA, but these are tiny and only operate withint N. Ireland.

Another factor taht helped the Peace process was, strangely enough, 9/11. In a way, 9/11 seperated the men from the boys, in terms of terrorists. And the IRA were not on the same scale as Al-Qaeda. So that helped quite a lot. Well, that and the fact that Bostonians stopped funding them indiscriminately.

As for people being scared, thoe in England havent been really scared since at least the 90s. Before that, it was alot more volatile. But the situation is still scary in N. Ireland. Knee-capping, murders, intimidation, "loyalty", no-go areas, segregation, etc.. all these things are still a reality in N. Ireland.

Today, the biggest obstacle to having a proper power-sharing Parlimant is the Rev. Ian Paisley. He's an old dinosaur with an inbred hatred of Sinn Fein. He is a James.

But he's old, will die soon (hopefully), and maybe it'll move quicker then.

The simple story, however, is that when youa re dealing with groups that have specific and reasonable poltiical objectives, the best thing to do is show them that they have more to gain by being inside the system than out. The Good Friday Agreement gave the tools for this to be a reality for Sinn Fein.