IRA move - Peace could be within our grasp

IT would be hard to exaggerate the importance for the peace process, North and South, of today’s Irish Examiner exclusive that the Provisional IRA could stand down next March, taking the gun out of Irish politics once and for all.

Having for years ‘talked the talk’ about decommissioning its weapons, Sinn Féin’s private army is finally set to ‘walk the walk’, and may wind up completely in five months, our Political Editor, Harry McGee, reveals.

Significantly, this dramatic news could create a new window of opportunity for the British and Irish Governments to break the logjam currently blocking restoration of the North’s power-sharing Assembly.