Northern Ireland terror attacks make for uneasy St. Patrick's Day

negotiating its way into the political mainstream. It was only in November 2007 that the UDA renounced violence, and the group has still not fully decommissioned its cache of arms. Through its public representatives in the Ulster Political Research Group (UPRG), the UDA has fitfully engaged in negotiations, while simultaneously dealing with sometimes violent, gangland-style, internal feuds, often struggling to control its own well-armed renegade members.

It was into this combustible mix that the CIRA/RIRA killings were directed. The CIRA/RIRA calculated that if they could provoke disaffected renegades in the UDA or other loyalists to kill some Catholics in retaliation, they could bring back the days of sectarian violence and make themselves, and their teenage recruits, newly relevant.

It appears that the dissident republicans miscalculated by failing to appreciate just how overwhelming the public sentiment had become for power-sharing, the peace process, and against political violence. They also failed to appreciate the real hunger in the UDA and loyalist organizations — and the working-class Protestant community in general — for the respect and benefits of the peace process. Far from enticing UDA to kill Catholics, the murders gave the UDA the political opening they have long craved, and a common enemy to civilized society against which to unite with the political establishment.

The deeper political questions lie with the political leadership of Northern Ireland, primarily the DUP, now headed by First Minister Peter Robinson, and Sinn Fein. The two parties have worked closely together since Devolution Day in 2007, and have been equal partners in denouncing the dissident republican killings, but their partnership frays over some fundamental differences.

The first concerns the speed of devolution of policing to the provincial government. The DUP favors British or DUP control of policing, but fears that devolution will result in nationalist control of the police. They have delayed devolution. By contrast, Sinn Fein wants policing out of British hands, and demands that the DUP and British government stop foot-dragging and comply with the Patton Report and St Andrews Agreement, which had scheduled for devolution to have already been completed.

Adding to these differences, the PSNI recently announced that it would accept assistance from British military intelligence in investigating the dissident republican activity. Sinn Fein, which was itself long a target of military intelligence, understandably demurs. The PSNI, however, is still generally regarded as lacking in its own police intelligence capacity.

The danger in these issues is that in their lack of resolution, they lend credence to the dissident republicans’ critique. If Sinn Fein cannot establish local control over the local police — even long after its was agreed to — then how effective can they be? Similarly, local resistance to British military intelligence assistance to the local police, is tied directly to who controls the local police, and at whom the local police are looking. For the sake of Northern Ireland’s stability and future, the policing issue needs to be devolved soon.

Grant Lally is contributing editor of HS Daily Wire; he is national chair of the Irish American Republicans