Dissidents set sights on Olympics

Police will face an Olympic task to ensure IRA diehards do not attempt to dampen the flame of peace when it travels across Ireland in the summer, writes Shawn Pogatchnik

WHEN the flame of peace comes to Northern Ireland this summer, police will face an Olympic task to ensure that IRA diehards don’t try to blow it out.

The Olympic torch will spend five June days travelling through dozens of cities, towns, and villages across the island of Ireland. The flame’s ambitious course into predominantly Protestant and Catholic turf in the North should offer a poignant measure of how the region has travelled down its own road to reconciliation.