Intelligence operatives are crucial to combatting terror

Such protests should be ignored. As a court case highlighted yesterday, intelligence workers are doing vital work keeping society safe.

Seven Irish republican terrorists pleaded guilty to charges arising out an MI5 bugging operation.

Eavesdropping showed that the men were providing weapons and explosives training, conspiring to possess explosives and firearms and were preparing acts of terror.

The guilty men were on bail through the proceedings and are on continuing bail ahead of sentencing.

These are extremely serious offences.

The PSNI are doing dangerous and brave work responding to the dissident threat to life and property. Many people in the wider criminal justice system are also working hard to bring such cases to trial, but it is hard to amass enough evidence to build a case against skilled terrorists.

It is difficult to prove to the criminal standard of beyond all reasonable doubt the guilt of the worst paramilitaries, as the low conviction for dissident murders post 2009 has shown.

The bail procedures that apply in serious terrorist cases are woefully slack and sentences for major terrorist convictions have been far too lenient in some cases.

If it wasn’t for intelligence operatives tracking and thwarting dissident terror, even more lives would be at risk.

Meanwhile, the lack of political support for the authorities who tackle the terrorist threat is troubling.

In an important piece of journalism in this newspaper yesterday, Adam Kula looked into the terrorist record of Tony Taylor, the dissident who abused his release on licence by returning to terror, yet whose detention was criticised by the full spectrum of opinion in nationalist Ireland.

When will London realise that you cannot placate such thinking? You just have to get on with the crucial work of prioritising security and saving lives.