BloodyIreland

Just when you began to think there was one intractable problem in the world that could be solved by diplomacy along comes another murdering bunch of bastards to prove you wrong.

Over the last few months there have been authorative voices raising concerns over security in Northern Ireland. Principal amongst these was the Police Chief, Sir Hugh Orde, who repeatedly stated that there were serious terrorist plans to kill and maim at an advanced stage of preparation. Even more recently elements of the British military infiltration and observation teams who work closely with the SAS were put into Northern Ireland.

But it was too little too late. A couple of days ago two soldiers, unarmed, about to eat a pizza before going to serve with the army in Afghanistan were gunned down in cold blood. Yesterday, in case we didn’t get the point a long serving police officer was summoned by a call from a woman in distress only to be ambushed and shot dead. The murderous bastards are back. After a decade of relative quiet purchased at the price of common sense and peace at any price.

The leaders of Sinn Fein, who, we mustn’t forget were and are the leaders of the Provisional IRA, weep crocodile tears over these losses. The fact is that the recent killers are from the Real IRA and are a dissident Republican group who don’t accept the peace process.

It would be an error to over react to the bloody outrages, but on the other hand our government must act decisively against the growing threat. The way to do this is to pressurize the leaders of Sinn Fein to provide their intelligence information about the perpetrators. Without doubt the Republican community knows exactly who committed these crimes and where they are. If Sinn Fein wants to cloak itself in false respectability and suck at the teat of the munificent British public purse this is the price and it must be levied now.

This is not yet a return to the “Troubles” of the past, but it is very easy to imagine the situation quickly spiraling downwards and out of control unless firm and sensible counter actions are taken.

If these crimes are allowed to stand larger scale attacks would be an inevitable consequence. That would be enough to suck a new generation of hard men from all sides back on the streets.

These sickening crimes have to be dealt with quickly and visibly. The culprits must be brought to justice and all measures to achieve this end must be employed, NOW!