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IRA 'has ceased its criminality' The IRA is no longer involved in any centrally organised criminality, the British and Irish governments believe. Speaking after meeting Irish ministers, NI Secretary Peter Hain said cross-border intelligence indicated the IRA was living up to its commitments. Mr Hain said individual IRA members may still be involved in criminal activities, but that should not prevent political progress from being made. However, the DUP's Nigel Dodds said Mr Hain was "living in fantasy land". "This latest assessment from the secretary of state lacks credibility and will be treated by the vast majority of people in...

At last the light is shone on the IRA Kevin Myers (Filed: 13/03/2005) No event in Northern Ireland in recent years has distilled the abominable and corrupted reality of life under the peace process as the murder of Robert McCartney. Half beaten to death, one eye gouged out, his throat cut, and then gutted like a fish, he was left to die while his IRA killers returned to the pub from which they had flushed him, to warn the customers there of the fate awaiting them if they informed. Then making off with the cassette from the CCTV, they proceeded...

Sinn Fein has had to call off a series of St Patrick’s Day fundraising events in America this week as pressure on Gerry Adams, the party’s president, spreads across the Atlantic. The events have been downgraded to speaking engagements after Adams was advised he would not be given permission to raise money in America because the IRA has come under heavy criticism for its involvement in bank robbery, money laundering and murder. Senior Irish-American senators have now demanded that the terrorist group disband. The reversal in Sinn Fein’s fortunes is largely due to the unrelenting campaign mounted by the girlfriend...

No event in Northern Ireland in recent years has distilled the abominable and corrupted reality of life under the peace process as the murder of Robert McCartney. Half beaten to death, one eye gouged out, his throat cut, and then gutted like a fish, he was left to die while his IRA killers returned to the pub from which they had flushed him, to warn the customers there of the fate awaiting them if they informed. Then making off with the cassette from the CCTV, they proceeded to destroy all the forensic evidence associated with the killing.This was an exception...

President Bush personally ordered that Gerry Adams be frozen out of official engagements during his visit to America, furious that the Sinn Fein leader had betrayed his efforts to help to re-start the Northern Ireland peace process. Mr Bush now views Mr Adams in the same unfavourable light as he did Yasser Arafat, the late Palestinian leader, a senior presidential adviser said last night. "At the White House, Adams is now regarded with the same sort of disdain as Arafat," the adviser told The Telegraph. "The President no longer considers Mr Adams a reliable partner for peace. He doesn't want...