Baseball bat justice

Picture the scene: the police get a call saying a young man has been kidnapped and taken from his home by a group of men armed with wooden bats. They find him later with a broken leg. Half an hour later they stop a car, recover a wooden bat and iron bars and arrest a man. Then they stop another car and recover a gun.

But then a crowd gathers and hails the police with missiles.

If you told me this happened in Liberia or the Ivory Coast I'd be shocked, but not surprised. But it happened last night in Belfast, more specifically in Ballymurphy, the home and central powerbase of one Gerard Adams.

This attack had nothing to do with political machinations in the wake of the St Andrews talks; it was a large group of thugs with no respect for public law and order, people filled with hatred against the authorities in Northern Ireland and against many of their own kind.

The leadership and middle ranks of the Republican movement have turned the corner and embraced democracy instead of mob rule. I applaud them for that. But they have to take the Banana Republicans with them.