Posted on 10/25/2001 3:18:37 PM PDT by Benson_Carter
Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble, center, leads ministers from left: Michael Mc Gimpsey, Sam Foster and Sir Reg Empey down the stairs at Parliament Buildings after handing their letter of resignation at Stormont, Belfast, Northern Ireland, Thursday, Oct. 18, 2001. Northern Ireland's largest Protestant party resigned Thursday from the province's unity government, aiming to force Britain to suspend the troubled experiment in Catholic-Protestant cooperation until the Irish Republican Army starts to disarm.(AP Photo/Peter Morrison)
The terrorists have a very firm grip over the territory they control and a spark in the wrong place could easily set the whole place alight.
NI is a patchwork quilt of political allegiances and the terrorists exert more control than the legal authorities.
There are 'front lines' all over the place. Ardoyne in North Belfast is one of the less stable places.
Trimble and Durkan (SDLP) need to work closely together as a team to hold the centre ground. Unfortunately, public safety is in the hands of Blair and Ahern not where it should be: Trimble and Durkan.
You mean have the British government leave the country, return the 6 northern counties back to Ireland, and allow them to be an independent state, free of all duties and responsibilities of the Empire? Or do you mean allow them to become an autonomous territory only to have their own constitution after 200+ years of British rule, such as Canada which only created its own constitution in the past 20 years?
Good luck to them all.
I believe that Sinn Fein did the right thing to surrender their weapons. Now the unionist paramilitaries must do the same. The ball is in their court.
Sure, there are those who won't accomodate themselves to peace but hopefully they are only a small minority. It was definitely time for the British Army to return to its home. The dream of Michael Collins and the other heroic signers of the 1922 Treaty may yet be redeemed.
Regards.
In recent years it has only been used to support the police and to monitor possible terrorist movement from the Republic.
Part of the latter capability is currently being reduced but it is still being used in 'hot spots' such as the Ardoyne to help keep local groups from each other's throats.
A small amount [unspecified] of republican weapons has been destroyed because of US pressure but sadly no loyalist ones have been.
The little hypocrite confirmed that it was okay to have terrorists in government in Belfast and on the North-South Council but not in the RoI administration.
So much for democracy and equality!!
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