IRA calls an end to its war!

5.32.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Thu 28th Jul 2005

The IRA have this afternoon declared that its war against Britain was over! This is an amazing leap forward in the peace process. In a dvd IRA volunteer Seana Walsh, standing in front of an Irish tricolour, he announced that from 4pm a "formal end to the armed campaign" had been ordered.

The IRA have vowed to complete its long-running decommissioning process as quickly as possible by "verifiably its arms beyond use", all IRA units have been ordered to "dump arms". The DVD makes it clear that "volunteers must not engage in any other activities whatsoever".

If the 'war' is really over this brings a wonderful opportunity to Northern Ireland to move forward for all it's people. I suspect there will be some renegade action but this action should result in the Assembly meeting again and a move back to normality.

I have taken an interest in Northern Ireland since I first attended a youth Council of the Isles meeting in Dublin where I met with SDLP, Sein Féin and Unionists (as well as Republic of Ireland political representatives) to debate a way forward back in 1998.