Talk:Assessment on Paramilitary Groups in Northern Ireland

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Politics of the United Kingdom

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The political objectives of the paramilitary groups[edit]

I was puzzled by "the leaderships of the main paramilitary groups are committed to peaceful means to achieve their political objectives".

Looking through the article to ascertain those objectives, all I could find was "drug dealing, robbery, extortion, and the distribution of counterfeit and contraband goods".

While I'm strongly in favor of achieving such objectives by peaceful means, which would set a great example worldwide, how complete is this as a list of the objectives of these paramilitary groups? Do they really have no other objectives? Vaughan Pratt (talk) 07:06, 4 April 2016 (UTC)[reply]

You can read the full assessment in the links provided in the article. Do say if the article has not summarised the report accurately. Bondegezou (talk) 07:40, 4 April 2016 (UTC)[reply]

The article is fine, it's the Assessment I'm puzzled by, which lists only those four objectives (which don't sound like "political objectives" anyway). According to the Wikipedia article Provisional Irish Republican Army, "The organization remains classified as a proscribed terrorist group in the UK and as an illegal organisation in the Republic of Ireland.[32][33] Two small groups split from the IRA, the Continuity IRA in 1986, and the Real IRA in 1997. Both reject the Good Friday Agreement and continue to engage in paramilitary activity."

Since rejection of the Good Friday Agreement presumably reflects a political objective not on the above list of four, either the Assessment is wrong or that Wikipedia article needs to be brought up to date. Vaughan Pratt (talk) 03:23, 5 April 2016 (UTC)[reply]

The assessment focused on paramilitary groups that had declared ceasefires, not on those like the Real IRA that had never done so. Bondegezou (talk) 07:35, 5 April 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Still not understanding. Are you saying that the assessment is wrong to limit its focus in that way, or that the Continuity IRA and the Real IRA are not among the "main paramilitary groups" today? Vaughan Pratt (talk) 07:15, 2 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

I am only concerned here with the accuracy of the Wikipedia article. A discussion about whether the assessment chose the right focus is not appropriate here. Bondegezou (talk) 08:24, 2 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]