The INLA gun firing display in Londonderry reflects wider culture of being soft around terrorists

Yet it is only fair to acknowledge the difficult situation the police were put in.

The terror of the IRA, by far the biggest perpetrator of Troubles violence, is increasingly treated (slyly so by some people in positions of influence) as part of an unavoidable tragedy in which it was only one ‘actor’, like the UK state.

As if this lightly challenged narrative was not enough of a scandal, homicide trials for historic killings have been grossly one sided against security forces who prevented civil war. They were responsible for 10% of the Troubles dead, mostly lawful killings, yet in recent years they have faced almost as many legacy criminal charges as republican terrorists.

While London is right to take unilateral action in the face of an Irish state that scolds it on legacy, but which has never been held to account for its extradition policy, and all the people murdered as a result by known terrorists who used the Republic as a base, the UK has simply tried to shut legacy down. It is too nervous of stirring republican bitterness and myth-making by actually confronting their lies.

Amid this context of attitudes to recently past terror, over the last year there could hardly have been a more stark example of the fact that republicans can do as they please than the Bobby Storey funeral, and the inability of anyone in authority even to slap Sinn Fein on the wrists for that calculated mass turnout for a terrorist (after thousands of responsible people had stuck by the Covid advice when burying loved ones).

Meanwhile, the Northwest has become a dissident hotbed.

So imagine if police had waded in to prevent the display and there had been uproar, even rioting. Would moderate nationalists have accused them of being heavy handed?

Police reticence is thus understandable but it sends out a signal of weakness. It is a reflection of a wider culture that seems to think if you keep being nice to terrorists and their apologists, the problem will go away.

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