A step we should be grateful for or applaud as historic? Never

ARE we supposed to be grateful? Are we now supposed to flock in our thousands to vote for Sinn Féin? Are we supposed to acknowledge and accept what Martin McGuinness and others call this “truly historic moment”? Well, count me out.

In my adult life, I've lived through too many pieces of their cynicism, too much of their manipulation, and too many of their atrocities to ever find it in my heart to be grateful to the Provos. I welcome what they've done, at last, but I insist that people who gave their all to keep peace alive while the Provos were bombing and murdering are the ones who deserve the gratitude.

If the Provos' disarmament is historic, is it more historic than the Shankill massacre, or the Birmingham and Warrington bombs? If the ones who ordered the killing and the maiming have now decided that it is to be no more, does that entitle them to be revered as peace-makers?