In the hall of mirrors that is politics here, only one thing is clear at present: everything that’s on the table at the moment should be made public so that we can make our minds up about who’s letting who down as we strive to find that elusive final deal.
Yesterday (Sunday) Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams said that the IRA’s statement had committed it to an entirely peaceful future. Doubtless the usual siren voices within unionism and revisionist Ireland will dismiss these words without so much as the merest pretence of analysis, but the time must come when the Irish and British governments are going to have to make a judgement call.
The IRA’s ceasefire has been remarkably disciplined and effective, however much the enemies of republicanism may seek to claim otherwise. Those same people who refuse to share government with Sinn Féin remain disgustingly silent in the face of continuing loyalist outrages, notably ongoing attempts to expel Catholics en masse from predominantly Protestant areas.
The time for bluff and faking is over. It’s time all the cards were put on the table.
