Maybe the leaders of Sinn Fein and the IRA aren’t hopeless after all. With the world sick to death of bombings and bombers, the IRA terror campaign looks like nothing so much as evil in the context of the carnage in today’s London. Are those still romantic Celtic warriors for Eire so delusional they wish to be allied with this current lot of morons and take the consequences? Hmmm.
Ireland's justice minister, Michael McDowell, said the top leaders of Sinn Fein had stepped down from positions on the IRA's secretive governing council. (NYT, CQ) The fronts for the IRA confirm its time for new tactics. IRA pally Niall O'Dowd the publisher of Irish America and Irish Voice confirmed: "It is the first time since the founding of the Irish state that the IRA has agreed that there should be no armed struggle. Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness have taken an armed revolutionary movement and succeeded in placing it on a political path. Irish history is littered with people such as Michael Collins, who tried to do the same and failed." (Update: BBC, AP/WSJ) (Update 2: WSJ. CSM wrap-up. Clear, hard look by UKTL).
I’d take a personal moment on behalf of my distant O'Coileain clansman to thank Mr. O’Dowd not to include this current crop with Michael Collins and the treaty he signed with the UK. He, at least, was willing to act to back up his word. Will this current crew? It took the universal revulsion last spring at bank robbery and murder by IRA thugs to get Adams last April to call on the republican movement to give up the guns and bomb and go into democratic politics! "That struggle can now be taken forward by other means," Adams said in a speech in Belfast. Hmmm. I don’t like the sound of that struggle rhetoric. Sinn Fein inked a peace deal eight years ago! That it is now the summer of 2005 and, shall we say, a bit late shouldn’t be reason to discount Adams’ effort. But leaders of the Republic of Ireland, UK and Northern Ireland councils need to check the fine print and watch this crew like a chronic melonoma. (Update: BR, WOC, NRO, NYT, LAT) Make sure the arms stashed around the Island are turned over. And before everyone gets too excited about this latest “peace initiative” let’s see what this current crop of hard cases do next? Soft touch Yanks with Green roots would be well-advised to remember what President Reagan, another son of Ireland, a real liberator, said when making peace with adversaries: "trust but verify." Will Sinn Fein’s newly democratic and peaceful leaders tolerate any renegades who can’t give it all up? What will they do with those who won’t stop? Are they worthy of being spoken of in the same breath as Michael Collins? Stay tuned. (QN, QN2, QN3)
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