“they are seduced by that same ideology that once drove the provisionals..”

Earlier Brian noted Chief Constable Hugh Orde’s comments to the Commons’ Northern Ireland Affairs Select Committee and David McKitterick’s report on the “intertwining of high politics and low terrorism”. By contrast, in The Guardian Henry McDonald takes issue with the Chief Constable’s line of argument and, by implication, raises the question of whom, exactly, is attempting that “intertwining” [Not the non-political Chief Constable? – Ed].

Is he really suggesting that the republican working class is angry and frustrated enough to join dissident organisations because the devolved government isn’t sitting up at Stormont? Having studied republicanism for more than 20 years and having lived among republicans for much longer, the idea that the most alienated within communities will be placated once Peter Robinson sits down to chair the next cabinet meeting alongside Martin McGuinness seems oddly, if not profoundly naive.

In some people’s eyes, of course, they’re just keeping “faith with the republican past”..

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