Paramilitary violence – Sinn Féin must cut ties with IRA

AN appalling vista would unfold in the Republic if the murderous activities of paramilitaries, including binding links between the IRA and Sinn Féin, were translated to the Republic.

More damning by far than anyone could have anticipated, the report of the Independent Monitoring Commission (IMC) chronicles a frightening pattern of violence, intimidation, extortion and abduction in this so-called era of peace, the fragile legacy of the Good Friday Agreement.

That sanctions have been imposed on both Sinn Féin and the loyalist Progressive Unionist Party because of their links with the violent forces of paramilitarism, was only to be expected.