“IN order to prevent the slaughter of innocent people and in the hope of saving the lives of our followers, the members of the Provisional Government agree to an unconditional surrender and order the laying down of arms and a call to disband.” Signed by Patrick Pearse.

That message took decades to sink in as successive generations of militant republicans struggled to end the violence and murder of innocent people.

Last week in Lurgan, it was clear that some still don’t get it as dissident republicans hijacked a vehicle at gunpoint and threatened to kill the driver if he did not bring it, now carrying a viable device, to a local police station.

A horrific and frightening experience for an innocent man caused by the moronic and twisted thought processes of zealots only too ready to risk his life for their forlorn cause.

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It would also have been a traumatic memory trigger for Kathleen Gillespie, who was cruelly widowed by the IRA 35 years ago when her husband was chained into a bomb-loaded van and made to drive it to an army checkpoint where it exploded, killing him and five soldiers.

Dissident republicans aren’t part of the past. They are in the here and now, although deluded and dangerous.

As can be seen by their tactics, they don’t lick their barbarous practices off the ground.

Condemnation alone will........

© The Irish News