It’s way too late for peace in Ulster

WE ARE told again and again that nothing (especially blatant outrages by Republican killers) must be allowed to get in the way of the ‘peace process’ in Northern Ireland. This actually means that our surrender to the IRA and to the ‘loyalist’ murder gangs 23 years ago, under mighty pressure from the White House, must never be questioned or reversed.

Most people on the mainland, glad to put a painful problem behind them, have simply not noticed that during those 23 years there has not in fact been peace at all. Lowlevel violence, intimidation and the driving of people out of their homes have all continued. The IRA Army Council still exists and its political puppet, Sinn Fein, has grown in power and wealth in both parts of Ireland.

Now it dawns on loyalists that Dublin rule of the whole island (which was written into the 1998 capitulation, though ignored by most at the time) is within sight, and very possibly Sinn Fein rule at that. Those who thought they could get peace and easy political credit by buying off gangsters may yet live to see troops sent from Dublin to put down Protestant riots in East Belfast.

Perhaps then they will wonder whether there might have been a more honourable and lasting solution, such as permanent direct rule from London with neither community lording it over the other. But it is too late now.