For Sinn Fein, the terrorist atrocity on Saturday night that left two British soldiers dead came at the worst possible time and involved the worst possible category of victim. Up until 2007, it seemed possible that the party would soon be in government on both sides of the border. This would have allowed it to claim that its goal of a united Ireland was within reach. But Sinn Fein failed in the 2007 Irish election; voters south of the border were repelled by the gangsterism of the Northern Bank robbery in 2004, in which £26.5 million was seized. In the North, the Democratic Unionist Party has out-manoeuvred Sinn Fein on issues from the Irish language act, to policing, to education reform. All this has provided a context of opportunity for those Republicans who argue that a return to the armalite is more likely to bring success than perseverance with the ballot box.
The dissidents, former IRA men, did not choose the British army as a target to force the ‘Brits out’, but — more subtly — to heighten the contradictions in Sinn Fein’s position on the British state.
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