Hasn’t gone away, you know..

Former DUP leader, and former First Minister, Ian Paisley Snr, was in the Assembly this morning condemning the weekend bomb attack by the Continuity IRA on a police patrol in Fermanagh. PSNI Chief Constable Hugh Orde has warned that “threat from dissident republicans remains high”. Sinn Féin’s Alex Maskey followed Ian Paisley in condemning the attack but did so whilst contrasting the group’s apparent lack of support with his own party’s political mandate. The conversion to pointing to democratic credentials is welcome, but unfortunately for that argument, today happens to mark the date of a 1974 IRA bomb attack on the Houses of Parliament in which 11 people were injured – the bomb being placed in Westminster Hall. And a BBC report from the time also happens to refer to the IRA as “the dissident Irish group”.. That’s before considering the manner of the Sinn Féin president’s celebration of past events.

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