Well said, Jimmy. I have purposely avoided posting, waiting for someone like yerself to say what must be said. One of the most troubling aspects of the coverage of the North of Ireland has been the fact that the Unionists continually make the arguement that the IRA must disarm, as if they were the only armed contingent. It implies that the only people in danger of having a violent act committed on them are the Orange/Loyalist/Unionist folks. The simple fact is that virtually every act of violence that has endangered the peace process has come from the paramilitaries that are aligned with and supported by the Unionists and by extension, the British Intelligence (?) community. This whole bit about the spying by the IRA is a red herring. Another of the "tactics of perception" that are being used in the media is to never mention Sinn Fein without mentioning IRA. Yet one almost never sees a mention of the Orange/Protestant/Loyalist/Unionist paramilitaries concurrently with the various parties on that side of the divide. The tactic is called obfuscation. There is a stategy at work that seeks to say something so often that it becomes so. That way the IRA can be blamed, when they have actually made more attempts to make this work than the others.

Mick