For your sort of more iggnant American readers, like me: this sounds like pretty much unalloyed good news? Is this right, or are there concerns that Republican complaints and issues will somehow be less valid without force of arms backing them up?
The latter seems to be the stated opinion of the Unionists, and the tacit opinion of pretty much everyone else. One thing that's already been noted is that the IRA have been stood down, not disbanded. And there are still questions over whether they and/or Sinn Féin will support the Police Service of Northen Ireland (PSNI) which has been something of a bickering point for the last several years.
To be honest, after a decade of stops and starts it's hard to avoid looking at this sort of thing with anything other than skepticism, until words are backed up by actions.
Oops, sorry, I misread what you'd written. The stated/tacit opinion I was referring to is that the statement isn't worth the paper that it's written on unless there's visible proof that the force of arms is no longer in effect. I don't think anyone considers that the complaints and issues of the Republicans are less valid just because the IRA haven't been blowing things up; I don't see how that would change with the IRA saying they're not going to blow anything up in the future.
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Sure, it'll be flawed and stuff, but... yay!
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To be honest, after a decade of stops and starts it's hard to avoid looking at this sort of thing with anything other than skepticism, until words are backed up by actions.
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