“What the f**k was it all about?”

Not all the weapons in the possession of the IRA (or as pointed out below, other extant Republican paramilitaries) were, it seems, decommissioned. The Sunday Tribune reports:

A volley of shots was fired by several gunmen at a ceremony in west Belfast yesterday attended by a 200-strong crowd which included prominent Sinn Féin members. The shots were fired beside the IRA garden of remembrance on the Falls Road where the ashes of former Belfast Brigade OC (officer commanding), Brendan Hughes, were being scattered. Among those in the crowd as the shots were fired were Bobby Storey, who was appointed head of Sinn Féin operations in Belfast last November, and west Belfast councillor, Fra McCann. The shots were dispensed from an alleyway, just yards from the monument. Sources said several gunmen were involve

It is far from certain how Brendan Hughes would have taken the ‘complement’ from Sinn Fein:

The last of the writings he gave me conveyed his inner torment: “I go to bed in pain, I wake in the middle of the night in pain, I get up in pain. What the f**k was it all about?”

Mick Fealty

Mick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and the wider media and is a regular guest and speaking events across Ireland, the UK and Europe. Twitter: @MickFealty