North in crisis - War of words better than the real thing

A DUP delegation met Northern Ireland Secretary Theresa Villiers in Belfast yesterday to discuss the furore sparked by the recent murder of IRA man Kevin McGuigan in the city and a PSNI assessment that Provisional IRA members may have been involved.

The DUP’s main electoral rivals, the Ulster Unionists, are set to resign from the Stormont Executive next week over the revelations while the DUP itself wants Sinn Féin ousted from the power sharing executive.

Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams claims that the IRA has long been a spent force and that the two unionist groups are playing politics but his party is no slouch in that regard either. If this is a case of political brinkmanship both sides are playing a very dangerous game.