spinoff

"The decommissioning of the arms of the IRA is now an accomplished fact." This the word from John de Chastelain, top bod in charge of overseeing the destruction of IRA weapons dumps.

This revelation - that the nationalist war has effectively been called off - is good news. Excellent news, in fact. However, one should hold back from lauding the Republicans too enthusiastically. There have been revolting republican murderers operating for years - ought we to pat people on the head for not murdering people? Certainly not. On top of which, one suspects this is not an end to all of the murdering.

This Spinoffite does, however, feel a grudging admiration for the Republicans. The post-9/11 climate turned world opinion sharply against terrorist organisations, and the Republicans have been quick to adjust their profile accordingly. The guns have been handed in, and now de Chastelain is happy they're gone.

The real losers in all this are of course the hard-line loyalists. Without a Republican army, exactly who can you fight against? The answer came in the form of the shocking riots in Belfast last month: they do on occasion fight the police, but mainly they are happy just to fight each other. Factions boasting a dizzying array of initials are struggling for control of lucrative protection and drug-running rackets, and of course the shootings continue.

The line between Loyalists and Unionists became perilously thin during the marching season, when footage was broadcast of Orangemen attacking policemen who had prevented them from marching in a catholic area. Yet another PR disaster.

But Sinn Fein has been clever. It has understood that, in the post 9-11 world, the politics of violence will get you nowhere, especially when it comes to the sympathetic money men in the US. The more the Loyalist/Unionist community continues to seethe, and the longer the Unionist cause takes to modernise, the further they will get left behind.

Yours etc,
 

Spinoff.