My comments are two. The reponse to Adams has about a three sentence
point to make, to the effect that the negotiating process is posed by
Adams as having some political autonomy apart from a) the IRA's armed
struggle and b) class conflict in Ireland. The writer disagrees. It
would have been better to have done so more concisely. The second comment
is that the argument is in aid of position a which, whatever its
analytical merits, is politically blind and morally obtuse. The IRA's
coming in part way from armed struggle had put it in better position than
it had been in for many years to obtain strcutural guarantees in the
north; it will now be much harder. I might predict the IRA's support
would shrink even smaller than it already is; but then, John Major is a
powerful recruiter for the IRA. For myself, killing innocent and distant
civilians, however much it may make rulers take notice, has lost its
appeal.