Marcus Stevens, Dump bigotry before weapons IT may come as a surprise to anyone who is crowing over an alleged Provisional Irish Republican Army surrender or concession on the decommissioning of its weaponry, that the IRA has actually consistently held to its policy of refusing to disarm until the new political institutions established by the Good Friday agreement have truly established a government in which the human and civil rights of the Catholic nationalist population in British-occupied Ireland have been guaranteed. The cause of peace has already been served since the second IRA ceasefire. Would that that could be said about the 135,000 legal weapons held mostly in the hands of unionists. Unfortunately, sporadic killing of Catholic nationalists continues in British-occupied Ireland. The IRA will not be laying down its arms tomorrow.
Orange bigotry has yet to be deposited in the ash can of history.
When that actually happens, then and only then will a bona fide decom-missioning of weaponry on the part of the IRA take place. I would like to add my few words to the debate about the 11-plus examination that is going on at the moment . If Martin McGuinness is going to make any changes to the legislation he should be very careful that it does not return to the old system, especially in Catholic grammar schools and colleges where, generally, the better off were catered to. The 11-plus gave children of poor and working class families a chance in life that they would never have had. It was the system that made it a status symbol.