The Sunday papers

LAST WEEK, the Chief Constable of the PSNI said: “Our assessment indicates that a primary focus of the Provisional IRA is now promoting a peaceful, political republican agenda. It is our assessment that the Provisional IRA is committed to following a political path.”

He said he accepted the bona fides of the Sinn Féin leadership regarding their rejection of violence and pursuit of the Peace Process, and their assurance that they want to support the police in bringing those responsible for crimes to justice.

And yet these words are lost as the usual suspects in the media and political establishment with notable exceptions turn to sensationalism, innuendo and lies to propagate their message.

Reliable anti-republican hacks and so-called 'commentators' who spent their lives working against the development of a peace process re-emerge and are painted as neutral commentators.

The IRA leaving the stage, putting all of its weapons beyond use and its members embracing only peaceful and democratic methods to achieve political aims is destabilising and disconcerting for them. They cannot adjust to the new reality.

The IRA is gone and is not coming back.

Any former members involved in crime should be pursued without fear or favour by authorities North and South.

All of this anti-republican hysteria is not surprising. 

The Assembly is already in crisis due to chronic underfunding and a Tory welfare cuts agenda. Rivalry within unionism sees the UUP adopt a phoney hardline stance to get one up on the DUP.

Parties in the South face a significant electoral challenge from Sinn Féin. So rather than show leadership, listen more carefully to what is being said and see the bigger picture, they lose the run of themselves and compete for the most outrageous attack against Sinn Féin.

The Sunday papers were full of opinion dressed up as facts, selective quoting, political point-scoring and a blatant absence of balance by any stretch of the imagination.

You would nearly think there was an election looming.