Word: unionists
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BELFAST: Another day, another bomb, another hitch in the Northern Ireland peace talks. No-one has claimed responsibility for Tuesday morning's police-station blast, and no-one was hurt. But that hasn't stopped Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble blaming the IRA, and calling for Sinn Fein to be excluded from the fledgling talks ? just one day after the Republicans arrived. Is this justified? "The IRA denies it, and they're probably telling the truth," says TIME's London Bureau Chief Barry Hillenbrand from Belfast. "It looks to be a Republican splinter group. This shows how fragile these talks...
...There are still a couple of major stumbling blocks. Most of the Protestant Unionist parties are furious at the idea of sitting around the table with men who, they claim, "still have blood on their hands" ? although this can be solved with Dayton-style talks, where the parties negotiate from separate rooms. When will it end? No one knows for sure. Even without Sinn Fein, peace talks have already dragged on for over a year now. The Blair administration will have its work...
...September, when a six-week verification period intended to test the IRA's commitment to the cease-fire ends. But even if the group keeps its guns under wraps, key pro-British Protestants have said they will not negotiate with Sinn Fein. Protestants from the United Kingdom Unionist Party walked out of the site of the talks at Stormont on Monday when a Sinn Fein delegation arrived for preliminary discussions. "We will not negotiate with anyone who supports violence and who are associated with any group which retained the means of inflicting violence upon others for the attainment of political...
BELFAST: Three Protestant leaders have stormed out the Belfast talks on Northern Ireland's future, proclaiming disgust over a compromise on disarming the paramilitaries of both sides. While Unionist leaders want the IRA to hand their arms to international monitors before talks on wider issues start, the IRA wants to keep them until after a settlement is reached. Yesterday, a 12-page document released by the British and Irish governments attempted to reach a compromise, calling for both the IRA and pro-British paramilitary groups to disarm gradually during the negotiations. That compromise didn't satisfy the Protestant leaders...
...share a pint of beer, a game of pool, a few confidences. For obvious reasons, Frankie has to be a little guarded in the last department. On the other hand, he became a terrorist because as a young boy he witnessed his father being gunned down by Unionist terrorists, and gruff-tough-sentimental-principled Tom fills an obvious need...