Word: republicanized
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...bewildering slew of acronyms that clog up every discussion of the situation. RIRA - the self-styled Real IRA - has said that it killed the soldiers, while CIRA - Continuity IRA - laid claim to gunning down Carroll. Factional splits and bloody internecine feuds were long a feature of the covert paramilitary republican movement, and RIRA and CIRA are dissident groups dedicated to destabilizing the peace process. Both groups are breakaways from the Provisional IRA, which, together with its political wing, Sinn Fein, have embraced power-sharing in Northern Ireland and renounced violence. The dissidents accuse them of compromising on the movement...
...Provisional IRA, the largest and deadliest of the republican paramilitary organizations, declared a cease-fire in 1997 and formally ended its armed campaign in 2005. Sinn Fein has transformed itself from a fringe party to the dominant political party in the Catholic community, and the second largest in Northern Ireland. Former IRA leader Martin McGuinness serves as Deputy First Minister in Northern Ireland's devolved government. "I supported the IRA during the conflict. I myself was a member of the IRA, but that war is over," said McGuinness in a strong condemnation of the renewed violence. "[The dissidents] are clearly...
...Although Sinn Fein is firmly wedded to the political process, some Republicans still accept the old twin-track approach of combining the bullet and the ballot. "I recognize the Irish people have an absolute right to take up arms against British rule," says Richard Walsh, spokesman for one such party, Republican Sinn Fein. Walsh says support for the dissidents is growing. "It's inevitable that more people are becoming disillusioned with the Provisionals. They've been lying to their own people for decades now. The traditional base [is] deserting them ever since they decided to recognize the British state...
...Despite Walsh's claims, there has been little sign of a migration away from the mainstream Sinn Fein. A Republican Sinn Fein candidate who ran against McGuinness in the 2007 Northern Irish Assembly elections garnered just 437 first-preference votes, to McGuinness's 8,065. But in the past year, intelligence and monitoring organizations have picked up signs of increasing activity among dissident Republican paramilitary groups...
...evaluates intelligence on paramilitary activity. "We've not been talking about substantial organizations." A security source concurs, saying the threat emanates from a "relatively small number of individuals," in groups that may be harder to detect because they "are fragmented and geographically segmented." Sinn Fein has called on its republican supporters to assist the police in combating the dissidents' efforts to reignite violence in Northern Ireland. And that has been welcomed by the party's longtime opponents. Because many of the dissidents are former members of the Provisional IRA, the republican community, including its political leaders, is more likely...