Word: iras
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Today, the same slogan might be more appropriate as an inventory of the IRA's arsenal - at least, according to the international panel appointed to oversee IRA disarmament. On Monday in Belfast, retired Canadian General John de Chastelain finally delivered the report he'd been waiting eight years to make: his international panel had spent the previous week observing the IRA decommission a vast array of weaponry, everything from a World War II-vintage machine gun to surface-to-air missiles. Using British and Irish intelligence reports on IRA arms as a guide, the general concluded that he had witnessed...
...Since they'd spent years arguing that giving up their arms amounted to an unwarranted surrender, the IRA's reversal signals the extent to which Irish republicans have turned to politics as the path to pursuing their goal of a united Ireland. ?We are closing the curtain on 700 years of Irish history,? said Father Alec Reid, a Catholic priest who had been invited, alongside a Protestant cleric, to witness the decommissioning with de Chastelain...
...However, the apparent waning of the IRA threat hasn't stopped Protestants from feeling threatened. Success or failure in Northern Ireland is often measured by how well the other side is doing, and right now Catholic society exudes confidence. The nationalist camp is still well short of its goal of a united Ireland, but its politicians have often shown remarkable dexterity in delicate negotiations with the British and Irish governments...
...Protestant leaders say this week's riots are symptomatic of their community's deepening detachment from the peace process: A narrow majority of Protestants initially favored the 1998 Good Friday accord, but have since turned against it. That's mainly because in the 11-year struggle to get the IRA to turn a ceasefire into permanent peace, they believe the IRA?s gunmen have won too many concessions. Their most recent cause for anger was a British government decision to disband a mainly-Protestant militia. The upsurge of violence may also be a simple resistance to sharing power with nationalists...
...rioting cast a pall over the British and Irish governments' hopes of using momentum generated by the IRA's disarmament declaration to restore a stable local government in early 2006. Mitchell Reiss, a U.S. State Department envoy, came to Belfast this week to help pave the way for a new round of talks, and ended up criticizing Unionist leaders who blamed anyone but the rioters for the unrest. The talks will probably take place anyway, but they may not be enough to revive Protestant interest in the settlement. And so, having spent more than five years bringing the IRA...