Bile's no use, whoever it's directed against. Never changed anybody's mind, and never stopped a sectarian murder. What people in Northern Ireland who want peace can do, and will do, is refuse to be provoked into reprisals, whatever efforts are made to provoke them. Mourn for the dead, but refuse to help the killers by responding in kind.

And hope that this kind of tragedy will maybe bring it home to a few more people there is never going to be "decommissioning", except maybe on a token basis, until peace is finally established. And anyone who insists that it's a precondition is just playing dangerous games.

But that was a bloody silly and unhelpful thing to say in that opening post Fiolar - "Shame that someone with a large scissors couldn't cut that excuse for a state free and let it float away into the Atlantic." Of course, maybe you were talking about Great Britain - even so it was bloody silly and helpful.