ONIH has not addressed the issue, and he has also not answered my question.  

1. I said small would be more appropriate relative to "minor" - ""Minor" reflects a point of view. "Small" would be more appropriate."  Most appropriate would be to not have any modifier.  If the split was so minor, why are so many people still ticked off about it?  And it's not fair to say that the RSF folks left the movement, they just continued pursuing a direction they had pursued for years.  The "movement" is bigger than PSF and PIRA.

2. I did not state that Peter Taylor is a "mere journalist."  If I did, my apologies to Peter Taylor.  Indeed, please point it out where I used the phrase "mere journalist." 

I did state that he has written some excellent books.  For better or worse, historians are not journalists.  They have different schools for each, in fact.  Provos accompanied a documentary broadcast; it's a great publication, but it's not a detailed history of the Provisional IRA.  The wikiepedia entry for Peter Taylor states, "Peter Taylor born Scarborough, North Yorkshire is a British journalist and documentary-maker who had covered for many years the political and armed conflict in Northern Ireland, the so-called Troubles. From his experience he has written and produced books and television documentaries on the Northern Irish conflict."  The entry for J. Bowyer Bell states, "The Troubles began in Northern Ireland in 1969, and Bell's The Secret Army: the IRA 1916-1970 was published the following year, and was one of the first detailed histories of the IRA along with The IRA by Tim Pat Coogan which was also published in 1970."  Many of the people that Taylor interviewed were also interviewed by Bell; and Bell probably interviewed them first and, in some cases, more than once (though Taylor probably interviewed several people multiple times, too).  

3. One Night In Hackney states above that he " wasn't using one source over another, I was using what the source actually said."  But Bell clearly states, as noted above, "Ruairi O Bradaigh, Daithi O Conaill, and about one hundred others walked out to form Republican Sinn Fein."  So, the sources disagree.  At one point, I believe, the word "twenty" was in there.  It is not in there now, and from my view this is appropriate.  If the sources disagree we should not choose one over the other, but instead we should either acknowledge the differences and quote from each or find a way to be neutral  not quoting from either.

4. Once again there has been a dispute in which One Night in Hackney has chosen one source over another and then when confronted with a direct quotation from an alternate source he has chosen to ask questions, change the subject, and deny the validity of the source.  The reality is that Taylor and Bell are both valid sources, and Bell was clearly talking about people walking out of the Ard-Fheis.  Bell might have been wrong, Taylor might be wrong, but we as Wikipedia editors are not in a position to make that determination.  To do so is to engage in Original Research. WH.  

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