You know what Ireland--Nelson Mandela was once a terrorist too. To suggest that Adams and McGuiness' IRA membership should preclude their participation in a post-war democracy is sheer idiocy. They have every right to be where they are, because they have proved for the better part of the past decade that they are not shooting at or blowing up anyone. They are working through the democratic political process, and have been for many years.

Spying is something both sides are going to continue doing until there is no more reason for the sides to mistrust one another. That hasn't happened, and it won't happen until and unless the British government forces the Unionists to walk out, and continues the institutions without them. They've got to do it, and do it now, or all the work of the past decade will be for naught, just as happened in between the Palestinians and Israelis, when Israel refused to give up power and control over the West Bank and Gaza as they agreed to do.

This Britspeak of "once a terrorist, always a terrorist" is bullshit, and incredibly dangerous brinkmanship in this day and age. There is no telling now how much damage the Unionists and the British government has now done to the peace process. But sitting on the republican/nationalist side of the fence as I am, I really don't see how they are going to be able to put any of the GFA back together any time soon. The republican and nationalist youth are totally cynical about the political "democratic" process now. And these are young people who didn't come of age during the violence, who are clearly questioning why the republican leadership ever bothered to try negotiating a peace settlement with the Brits to begin with. What incentive have they got for carrying the peace torch?