Indeed, but you'd take out 100 others collaterally, as this lot (the 'Real IRA', according to the latest reports) hide in the community like their IRA predecessors, or nip over the border.
The fact that Sinn Fein - and Adams and McGuinness in particular - have spoken out against these murders is heartening. Ireland's history is riddled with examples of dissent and disagreement among republicans - indeed, the civil war of 1922/3 was the direct result of such in-fighting.
But nothing since the six counties' 'partition' in the early 1920s (which was never legally ratified) has been as hopeful as the cessation of bloodshed of the past decade. Even de Valera would have to have conceded that. Let's hope that those behind these attacks are unlikely to have the support of even the most vehement, but pragmatic, republicans whom, I believe, can see a real prospect of a united, 32-county Ireland.
Last edited by XV490; 8th Mar 2009 at 19:59.