Ireland (continuing this trialogue, assuming McGrath hasn't given up on us yet) - agreed on all points in your last.

But, re SF: Adams & McGuinness *did* finally persuade (command??) the Provies to at least begin decommissioning their armaments. Now, No that's not disbandment of the IRA as an organization; and No even the disarmament itself is far from complete, I'm sure. Right. But, it's a step in the right direction; and it was *a very difficult one for them to take*, given the physical-force ideology & mythology, the inevitable spinoff of splinter-groups (RIRA, Continuity, etc.), and all that. I've read (you tell me whether accurately) that Adams & McGuinness themselves may be "marked men" as a result: quislings, you know. (Exactly consistent with the IRA's long & bloody record of serial splits & internecine assassinations, in which Adams & McGuinness of course are complicit.)

My point is that if some decommissioning, long rejected as unthinkable ("Not one bullet") --- and, come to think of it, also the unprecedented & unqualified public apology for the killing of "non-combatants" --- can occur, then who is to say that eventual disbandment will not?

*I know these are small steps* (and that a "We're so sorry" statement can be infuriating given the history, and brings back not one slaughtered child, woman or man. / But, are these not at least glimmers of hope? If at least *some* of the "hard men", on all the damned sides, can see the need to change---might not they all, eventually? Or, enough of them to make peace possible?