Last month a nice chap called "Slab" Murphy was found to be in possesion on £700,000 in cash and cheques. This gentleman was firmly defended by a certain G Adams Esq., as a "good republican" and "not a criminal". Given that our mate slab appears to have been running an enourmous criminal operation profiting from all sorts of cross-border smuggling as well as other scams and frauds this seems like a curious description unless "good rebublican" means "bigtime crook" and "not a criminal" means doesn't get involved in the day-to-day running of his criinal empire.
[It could be that I'm doing Mr Murphy a disservice and that the 700 grand plus all has a perfectly legal explanation - but since he apparently legged it before the garda could ask him to explain I trust people will forgive me for being just a touch sceptical]
Today we learn that a former colleague of Mr Adams and, allegedly, Mr Murphy has died of "lead poisoning". This unfortunate fellow was a spy against the IRA and was outed last year. Given that the IRA has announced a cease-fire, laid down its arms etc. etc. the fact that this former spy has been terminated with extreme prejudice is clearly nothing to do with their political goals. Given that some "good republicans" have apparently been remarkably lax in terms of ebedience to the law what this reminds me of most are those enterprising Sicilians of the "Cosa Nostra" and their various offshoots. In other words the IRA is no longer pretending to fight for a united Ireland but instead is openly acting like every other large organized criminal gang.