Republican double standards

So the IMC is expected to say the IRA wasn't behind Paul Quinn's murder last year. Quelle surprise. Although the murder wasn't ordered down the IRA chain of command, apparently the IMC believes (former) IRA members carried out the murder - which, let's not forget, was meticulously planned and surgically executed by up to 20 men in forensic suits.

 

Within hours, while the rest of us were reeling in horror, Sinn Féin was able to state confidently that the IRA was innocent. The speed of that announcement always smelt funny.

 

The Republican double standards are this: murders committed by IRA men not acting under IRA instruction inflict no disrepute on the IRA, whereas they brand the British army auxiliary force UDR a terrorist group because a handful of rogue squaddies were implicated and charged with terrorist offences as heinous as the Quinn butchering.

 

Such double standards are see-through political posturing, nothing more.