It's definitely not good to see Northern Ireland back in the news for all the wrong reasons. When the two soldiers were murdered over the weekend it was still kind of possible to vainly hope it might be an isolated occasion. But when the policeman was murdered on Monday night, it was obvious that this was, at the very least, an attempt to stoke up some fires that seemed to have gone out years ago. As many people in Northern Ireland must have known for a long time, they obviously haven't.
The peace marches raise the stakes a little bit more. If the Continuity IRA decide to ignore them and continue forward with their plans then who knows what will happen? It doesn't seem that they they really care about what the people think 'cos it's obvious that no one in Northern Ireland wants to return to the days when they were living in a warzone. That is very obvious. Besides, the most generous estimates put the membership of the CIRA at around 100. Some as low as 25.
So they can’t claim to be representative of everyday folks. It's heartening that so many thousands of those everyday folks are prepared to risk their safety (there'll be cameras everywhere) to let their feelings be known in the peace marches that took place in Belfast, Newry, Downpatrick, Lisburn and Londonderry. But in order to have any hope of solving these crimes the government will require information from people it can't fully protect. If a very brave someone gives information, is subsequently found out and dealt with, their family are gonna be looking for the people who merked their loved ones. And it will go on from there. That's the worst case scenario.
On the bright side, the good news is that there have already been two arrests in the case of PC Stephen Carroll. So some very, very brave souls have seen something and said something. It's also good that there hasn't been panic and a return of the SAS to the streets. But a few more killings and that may have to be reconsidered, if only for political reasons. Speaking of which, at Prime Minister's questions Gordon Brown made all the right noises. He had to. It was (quite rightly) the most frequently visited topic of the day.
An hour or so later the marches kicked off. The people who spoke to the reporters on the TV are probably even braver than those who spoke to the authorities about the murder of Constable Carroll. Especially those who were police officers. Their images will be replayed over and over all day. They'll probably appear in some of tomorrow's newspapers. Check the news or the net for the pictures of the rammed streets of Belfast, where in excess of 10,000 people were rumoured to be in attendance.
And don't kid yourself that this is just an 'Irish problem'. If they fail to start some shit in Ireland itself, they may just try it in the mother country. No one is trying to tempt fate, but there is no point ignoring realities.
The best thing of all is that the vast majority of young Irish peeps - those needed to infitely prolong any new unrest - seem to have rejected the language and ethos of conflict. There was certainly plenty of youngers on those marches.
Image: Infomatique