Momentous ceasefire

The violence perpetrated by jihadi elements in the London underground earlier this month 8212; and the universal outrage it caused 8212; may possibly have been the second immediate reason for prompting this welcome change in the organisation8217;s strategy and thinking. But, in a sense, the shift had already taken place. The Good Friday Peace Accords of 1998 had already privileged the political process over random acts of terror and Gerry Adams, the leader of the Sinn Fein 8212; the political arm of the IRA 8212; had indicated time and again that he wished to distance himself from elements within the IRA that had turned lumpen, and to achieve an end to hostilities in order to secure the stalled Northern Ireland peace process.

IRA8217;s decision to dump arms represents a turning point, not just for Ireland but a world in which enduring and incipient insurgencies continue to fuel terrorist violence. The IRA, by opting for the sanity of dialogue and the stability of the democratic process, demonstrates that there could be a different way of achieving political ends that have defied a solution for decades.