Thanks be to God

Let's see how good the voice of Unionism will be during the end game, now that the ultimate excuse for not engaging is being removed by one and all.

They have gone away you know .....

"the ultimate excuse for not engaging is being removed by one and all."
I'd say your jumping your fences there quite a bit.
Whoa there neddy!
SF extricating itself from IRA?
Its still the middle game here

Of course if the voice of Unionism doesn't seize the opportunity they could resuscitate the corpse. The old necromancer has done it before.

I agree with that one.
Right now the heat is not on Unionism to the same extent.
Should we get a "spectacular" internal split within SF/IRA and public confidence
( particularly with the people of Northen Ireland .. never mind the Brits ) is restored
the Unionists will have to sit down face to face with whomsoever represents Nationalism.
I'm looking forward to that ShayPaul :)

Feeney is absolutely right. It is time the PIRA faced up to the inevitable outcome of the peace process.

I think Ahern and Blair are playing a somewhat risky but canny endgame. Threatening the political gains SF have made over the past 10 years. It can succeed but there are a couple of unknowns out there that could scupper it.

If the various loyalist groupings could somehow be persuaded to engage in side-by-side decommissioning with the PIRA the whole situation could be radically transformed. Does anyone have any info on the status of these talks? I havent't seen a peep of data worth a damn in years.

one thing that would be helpful to know at this stage so that we can properly assess our position.
What % of their arsenal have the IRA already decommissioned. If it's 50% then I would have trust in their commitment.If 5% I wouldn't.

48.2%

Just guessing - which is all you'll ever get as an answer to an impossible question.

I don't think it's an unreasonable question.
One that should be asked by our politicians.
If it is as miserably low as 5% then this has been a charade. If it's considerably higher then the RM deserves credit and the dubious secrecy involved has damaged the process unnecessarily. If it is only a small percentage then the imposition of secrecy becomes understandable.

Feeny is (my goodness I can't believe I'm writing this) correct. Sinn Fein have managed to achieve something which no Unionists could ever have hoped to deliver, namely the dismantling of the pan-nationalist front.

Well done, Gerry!

Youths attack goat rescue mission