How are we going to deal with IRA threats?

This is the question that the Irish punditocracy seems unwilling to answer. The second IRA statement, warninig the two governments not to underestimate the gravity of the situation, along with warnings that the Provos are recruiting and preparing to go to war, is causing Irish commentators to go into a tizzy, with studied outrage the norm. Even the Old Lady of D'Olier Street, the Irish Times is purporting take a tough line with the Provos, saying that a situation in which the parties in the Dáil "stretch their democratic constituencies to the limit..can no longer be tolerated."

Stirring stuff. While other commentators have been calling the PIRA and the Adams family to account for quite some time now, the IT has finally gotten in on the game. Welcome to the party, Geraldine.

But there is no sense of what ought to be done if the IRA do go back to "war", their euphemism for killing and maiming women and children. As things stand, the Provos maim and torture teenagers, and knock off cigarette factories and proclaim their commitment to peace, while their political wing go from strength to strength.

It's intolerable, and SF ought to be held to account. No democracy can withstand the kind of hypocrisy which their links to terror constitute. But what do we do if the IRA do go beack to the bullet and the bomb. I'm for a tough, politically smart response, which takes out the terror masters without alienating the Nationalist community. but do the governments have the will?