Britain said on Tuesday that all the main paramilitary groups from Northern Ireland’s so called Troubles, including the Provisional IRA, remain in existence but that the biggest security threat was posed by dissident republicans.
The Provisional IRA still exists albeit in a “much reduced form”, according to a new “make or break” report into ongoing paramilitary activities in Northern Ireland.
It found that all the main paramilitary groups had committed murders since the ceasefires of the 1990s but stressed that they were not engaged in or planning terrorist activities.
In an assessment that underscored both the weaknesses and successes of a 1998 power-sharing deal that has brought broad peace to the British province, Northern Ireland’s police service and Britain’s MI5 intelligence agency said the men with guns still existed and had carried out recent murders.
September 18 - Amid unionist reluctance to join the crisis talks, Ms Villiers announces that an independent panel will be set up to assess paramilitary activity in Northern Ireland.
“They state that while decommissioning took place between 2001 and 2005, PIRA continues to have access to a few weapons”.
The review looked at groups including the Provisional IRA, the Ulster Volunteer Force, Red Hand Commando, Ulster Defence Association and Irish National Liberation Army.
“For all that the assessment judges the leaderships of the main paramilitary groups to be committed to peaceful means such groupings have no place in a democratic society”.
“Inevitably an assessment of this kind does not provide all the answers but I hope it will assist in identifying the nature and scale of the problem and framing the debate about the way forward”.
September 8 - Ms Villiers attempts to convene the cross-party negotiations but the UUP says it will only take part in discussions that focus on the IRA.
Overall the report points out that the PIRA and its leadership remained wedded to the peaceful political strategy of Sinn Féin.
The report said: “The PIRA of the Troubles era is well beyond recall”.
The report states, as did the IMC before it, that the continuing existence of the various groups since the ceasefires has played an important role in enabling the transition.
The 53 year old was shot dead in Belfast in August sparking a major political crisis at Stormont.
Detectives believe a few of Mr Davison’s associates suspected Mr McGuigan of involvement in his shooting.
The party said the report confirmed the assessment of Northern Ireland’s police chief George Hamilton in August that individual members of the IRA were involved in the McGuigan murder but the leadership did not sanction it and was wedded to peace.
September 23 - Ms Villiers names Lib Dem peer Lord Carlile, retired senior Stormont civil servant Rosalie Flanagan and Northern Ireland-based QC Stephen Shaw as the three members of the independent panel to review paramilitary structures.
