IRA disavows violence one more time

IRA apologises for the apparently-accidental killing of civilian Eugene McQuaid, victim of what they claim was a premature bomb explosion. Small comfort for Mr McQuaid's family, I'm sure, but what seems perhaps more significant than that is the statement that accompanied IRA's annual Easter statement:

The leadership of Oglaigh na hEireann believes that it is possible to achieve the republican goal of a united Ireland through the alternative route of purely peaceful and democratic means.

They've got almost no control over the gangsters who make up the splinter groups (e.g., the "Real IRA" and others), who are determined to sink the peace process because of the fortunes they've been making out of extortion, smuggling, drugs, and guns. It's almost certainly gangsters from the splinter groups who tortured and murdered British spy Denis Donaldson.

There are two sides to every such conflict. Not "right" versus "wrong", not "strong" versus "weak", not "Catholic" versus "Protestant".

No. The two sides in any such conflict comes down to those who'll kill versus those who will not. Color me "Not."