Another Deadly Attack in Northern Ireland

This is really depressing news coming from County Armagh, Northern Ireland. For the second time in less than a week, a splinter IRA group is trying to upend a decade-long peace by targeting members of the police service (PSNI) and British army.

The groups are likely trying to take advantage of the weakening economy to provoke an overreaction by the police and security services, though it seems so absurdly warped and murderous that it will almost certainly fail. The Real IRA, the group that claimed responsibility for Saturday’s ambush of an army barracks, claimed that the gunned-down pizza deliveryman was a legitimate target, because he was “serving the occupational force.” This isn’t freedom fighting; this is the D.C. sniper set on anarchy.

It’s important to remember that the Real IRA and Continuity IRA are splinter groups so small that they may have only a few hundred active members. The group’s support within even the Republican community is close to nonexistent. While Sinn Fein President Gerry Adam’s initial statement after the first attack probably wasn’t as forceful as it should have been, members of all political parties have since then spoken in one voice to condemn the attacks.

Both the police and members of the Republican community are likely chasing the at-large members of the Real IRA and Continuity IRA with equal virulence. Note: Their capture could be become a serious problem for the peace process if they are not turned over to the police, due to long-running controversies over the police service.

I’ll be traveling to Ireland later this week and hope to have some better insights once I’m there, but this is almost certainly going to add a layer of foreboding to an island already confronting a stunning economic reversal.

The views expressed in this blog do not represent the views or opinions of Generations United.