If IRA disarm now, they can never again shoot themselves in the foot

HERE we go again. All must wait with bated breath for the IRA’s next historic statement. Yet again they have us all hanging around - and have kept all the media attention focused squarely on their agenda.

When the latest round of ‘consultations’ within the republican movement were launched by Gerry Adams at the start of the recent Westminster election campaign, an IRA response was expected to come quickly after the election results were in.

Then it was all going to happen in June. Next, the assessment was that early July, before the marching season got into full swing, would operate as an effective deadline. On Monday, reporting on the Blair/Ahern summit, RTÉ’s Tommie Gorman, who is usually a well-informed reader of these timescales, suggested that the IRA statement was now expected “in the days after July 12th”. It all has too familiar a ring to it.