(Editorial, Irish News)

The IRA army council should not stand down in response to the weekend demand for its removal from the PSNI chief constable, Sir Hugh Orde.

It should disband because the vast majority of Irish people, north and south, want it to go and because it has no possible role to play in our country.

The IRA has already recognised this basic reality by ending its campaign of violence and decommissioning its weapons, so removing its army council is the next logical step.

It needs to be accepted on all sides, particularly by a number of unionist politicians, that the IRA is not the only paramilitary group with responsibilities in this regard.

The main loyalist organisations remain heavily involved in criminal activities and, apart from token gestures by fringe elements, have insisted on completely retaining their arsenals.

Unionists are fully entitled to put the spotlight on the IRA army council but their words will ring hollow if they do not devote the same attentions and energies to the loyalist sector.

Removing the army council would also be an appropriate response to the growing alarm over the circumstances surrounding the murder of 21-year-old Paul Quinn in Co Monaghan in October.

It is unlikely that the army council could have sanctioned the killing but all the evidence which has emerged links the outrage to past or present IRA members.

The way in which ordinary residents of Mr Quinn’s home area in south Armagh have been prepared to speak out over his death has been striking.

It all bears disturbing parallels to the murder of Robert McCartney by equally ruthless and well-organised individuals in the Markets district of Belfast in January of 2005.

The Quinn family remain convinced that their son was also a victim of the IRA and they want to see the perpetrators brought before the courts.

Both the family and the detectives investigating the killing on both sides of the border deserve the support of the entire community.

Standing down the army council will not resolve the matter but it would firmly demonstrate that republicans are determined to remove any suspicions which may exist about their structures and intentions.

This article appeared first in the December 17, 2007 edition of the Irish News.

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