Teribus, it depends on what you mean by ceasefire. There have been a string of murders plus some violent feuding between loyalist gangs that has quietened down over the last few years if you'll recall the TV and news of about 2004 / 5. Now even at that time there wasn't much call in the media for loyalists to disarm. It seemed once republicans had decommissioned no-one else was expected really to follow suite. The implication is that republicans alone have been responsible for the mess and once their guns were silent, that was that. the stats tell a different story. In media reports and headlines republicans have at times been accused of being responsible for almost the total of the north's death toll. At best they were accused of little over half of it. But there are reliable figures that demonstrate that all republican paramilitaries between them have been responsible for about 1,700 deaths, while Loyalists have been responsible for about 800. The security forces have been responsible for the remainder (about 1,000) but you must remember that includes the RUC and UDR both of which at times housed loyalists able to kill under cloak of legality, plus the issue of collusion of course.

It also seems to be regularly forgotten that it was unionists - not republicans - who introduced the gun into 20th cent Ireland. They staged an armed coup d'etat in 1912 which didn't become an actual bloodbath because the British government backed down in the face of the threat and British army officers threatened mutiny if obliged to quell any rebellion. And what were they objecting to? Home Rule as part of the Empiah, not even independence.

Republicans saw how the gun could be effective and formed the IVF - the forerunner to the IRA - in 1913. They were accused of getting help from Britain's enemy - Germany - during WW1 but ironically it had been Austria - Germany's main ally - that had supplied the UVF's guns in 1912.

My point stands - Loyalists who hang onto their guns - just as dissident republicans - do so in the expectation of using them at some point: why else would you keep them except as 'insurance' (or perhaps to enforce the UVF's and UDA's drug dealing). If they were committed to peace they'd have consigned the guns to he dust bin when the main body of republicans did. Instead it seems to be the case with loyalists 'first in, last out'