"I don't wanna spend the rest of my life / lookin' at the barrel of an Armalite..." Invisible Sun, The Police

Trouble sleeping last night, so listened to the BBC World Service news (carried by my local public radio after 1 am). Their lead story was the IRA's annoucement that they had actually begun 'putting weapons beyond use'.
Here's the story at the online edition of the Irish Times. As I understand it, the British government will reciprocate by reducing their military presence.

Interestingly, the BBC mentioned a change in the attitude of the IRA's American supporters post-9/11 as being partly responsible. No surprise there, at least not for people with a conscience. That old saw, "One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter", rings awfully hollow any more - the corollary is worse.

The IRA's action in itself won't end the terror - there are splinter groups on both sides who've sworn to never disarm. But (as I heard a spokeswoman for "Women Together for Peace" say in an interview) the hope is: now they can get past the arms issue and deal with 'bread and butter', improving the lives of the people, thus erasing the inequalities.

[As if this page needed a tie-in to topic... I found this while Googling for links to WTFP.]

Erin go bragh!

E'