“disband and disarm or face the consequences..”

Two men have handed themselves in to police in Londonderry and are being questioned in connection with the murder of Emmett Shiels but police say they know that 5 or 6 men were involved. Meanwhile, with Northern Ireland Secretary of State, Shaun Woodward, telling the House of Commons that “dissident republican activity is at its highest level for five years”, two of those republican paramilitary groups in Londonderry have denied involvement in the murder. In Strabane, however, where Sinn Féin had a little local difficulty with some of their councillors and the DPP, one of those groups is claiming credit for disarming and disbanding a “group of vigilantes”.

“The INLA got involved and have told us that, with the assistance of other republican groups, they investigated the matter and identified those responsible. The INLA then went to this group and gave them an ultimatum to disband and disarm or face the consequences. The INLA told us the vigilante group agreed to disband and have handed over their weapons to responsible people,” [Willie Gallagher of IRSP] said.

Adds Given the references to vigilantes, it’s worth asking the question again – Whatever happened to Community Restorative Justice? In particular, in the North West..

We are reader supported. Donate to keep Slugger lit!

For over 20 years, Slugger has been an independent place for debate and new ideas. We have published over 40,000 posts and over one and a half million comments on the site. Each month we have over 70,000 readers. All this we have accomplished with only volunteers we have never had any paid staff.

Slugger does not receive any funding, and we respect our readers, so we will never run intrusive ads or sponsored posts. Instead, we are reader-supported. Help us keep Slugger independent by becoming a friend of Slugger. While we run a tight ship and no one gets paid to write, we need money to help us cover our costs.

If you like what we do, we are asking you to consider giving a monthly donation of any amount, or you can give a one-off donation. Any amount is appreciated.