Telling the IRA arms story ‘is vital’

, according to Brian Rowan, BBC Northern Ireland security editor. A surprising part of Rowan’s conclusion is his assertion that “Even the loyalists accept that there is no threat from the IRA”.

Really? Well, I suppose you might concur if, like Brian, you omit events such as the IRA’s grand larceny at the Northern Bank in December (see The Adams-McGuinness technique: rob banks to buy your way to power in today’s Times*) from your analysis, or the vicious IRA murder of Robert McCartney, complete with thorough forensic cover-up (and a pub full of IRA/Sinn Fein witnesses saying, all together now, “we was all in the toilet at the time, so we was”).

On a related note, now that attention has shifted, intimidation of and violence towards the McCartney family and their friends has resumed. Strangely, the BBC’s sole article on the subject, headlined McCartney intimidation ‘growing’, has been watered down with a new headline, Families discuss justice campaign. Way to go, BBC!

* Channel 4’s Dispatches, The Big Heist, is on at 9pm tonight.