Crime doesn't pay

News came today that the home battalions of the Royal Irish Regiment are being stood down with hefty redundancy payments and, for full-timers, generous pensions.

Talking of retirement pensions, RTÉ say police, gardaí and customs officials today cordoned off a leading Republican's 'farm' straddling the Armagh/Louth border in a widespread operation which saw guns, computers, contraband goods and huge amounts of cash impounded.

As new chapters open for two relics of our troubled past it's ironic that a single day would see (superfluous) law enforcers rewarded and (alleged) lawbreakers brought to book.

There's no place for any gangsterism in 21st century Ireland, and maybe ordinary decent Republican socialists will now pause to reflect on whether the élite of their movement favour wealth dispersal as much as Karl Marx did.