Word: iras
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...summer had started out relatively well. After years of dithering and delays, the Irish Republican Army had finally declared an end to its armed campaign and announced that it would decommission its entire arsenal. That promised disposal of thousands of weapons under scrutiny by international observers, which the IRA has promised would be completed by mid-October, may have already started in secret arms dumps around Ireland...
...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...
During their 20 years together, husband and wife Ira Kaplan and Georgia Hubley, plus bassist James McNew, have been praised more than Philip Roth and sold only slightly more records. These three discs are the perfect way to discover a band that swings wildly between exuberant lo-fi noisemaking (The Story of Jazz, Shaker) and some of the best adult love songs of the past decade (Stockholm Syndrome, Tears Are in Your Eyes). They're proof that maturity and fun are not mutually exclusive...