Hypothethical, as you say, Ireland. (And don't be fazed by the noises off.) But people have long memories, and their memories wouldn't need to be that long to remember what happened back in 1969.

Whether you think they'd be better to trust the British Army or the Police, or rely on help coming across the border from the republic, isn't the point. There isn't that trust and that reliance, and that means that if the existing IRA were taken out of the picture there'd be a new one, and that would be no improvement from anyone's point of view. (Apart from those people who would welcome a new war, more especially those who might see that as a way of averting developments which they see as leading inevitably to the end of partition.)