No splits ahead

Barry McCafferty reports on two conversations with Irish republicans, 1 pro the Belfast Agreement and the other anti. Joe Doherty first:

When I joined the IRA in the 70s things were black and white. But in this process we have to accept that things are going to evolve. Nationalists are frustrated that there has been no movement on policing and social justice, but at least our politicians are in there fighting for change. We fought from outside for long enough, now we are in there bringing people to account. There have been splits in republicanism down through the years and the one thing about all of them is that they achieved nothing. We can only succeed if we stay united and strong. I am confident that the current leadership has the strength and support to do that.

The leading republican dissident, Anthony McIntyre, agrees but for less than complimentary reasons:

The republican movement is so leadership-led, that it would take a key figure to walk away before there was any split. There�s no sign of any key figure doing that. The grass roots have had the opportunity to shun republican leadership in the past, but have refused to do so.

Mick Fealty

Mick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and the wider media and is a regular guest and speaking events across Ireland, the UK and Europe. Twitter: @MickFealty