IRA claims to embrace political ecumenism

“THE IRA say that their strategies and disciplines will not be inconsistent with the Good Friday Agreement” (Editorial, The Irish Examiner, April 26). Does that mean a new-found belief in shared communion with the separated brethren of Ulster Unionism?

Does it mean a transubstantiation of republican theology to include a belief in the sacramental nature of protestant orders and their fundamental right to celebrate their heterodox, as distinct from nationalist orthodox, traditions.

Does it mean taking the Good Friday agreement to its logical conclusion that no church, eucharistic congress or political entity can set itself up endlessly as the repository of all revealed truth and, in Irish Republican terms, all veiled truth as well, so that the process of conciliation is complete? Or are we still talking apples, oranges and an extra special dispensations for the latter-day church of republican martyrs?