No typo--Sinn Fein is, of course, a pro-Agreement party. The only pro-Agreement party all the other pro-Agreement parties seem hell-bent on getting rid of, no matter what.

As to Larry's comments (and again, to add my support to Big Mick), we cannot remove the political contexts of political killings from the personal.

This was a political killing, not a random act of criminal violence. The party claiming responsiblity (Red Hand Defenders, who are a loose collection of the supposedly on ceasefire loyalist paras) said as much. They are also the same party which claimed responsiblity for the killing of Garvaghy Road Residents Coalition Solicitor Rosemary Nelson.

The lead article in today's Irish News states:

"A caller to the Irish News yesterday, claiming to represent the Red Hand Defenders said the loyalist dissidents had shot Mr Cummings in "retaliation" for the election of two Sinn Fein councillors in Antrim."

It may not be "peace and reconciliation PC" to talk about the political killings in context, one thing is for certain: if we can't talk about political killings in the context they occur, how are we ever to solve the problem of political killings?