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Calls for the IRA to Disband

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photoFor decades, the Irish Republican Army was Catholic Northern Ireland's sword and symbol of armed resistance to British rule. But somewhere along the way, the IRA lost its heroic luster. Now, onetime supporters say it's more like a gang than a liberation front.

Last January, a brutal murder at a crowded Belfast bar that had nothing to do with liberation ignited a call for justice by the victim's sisters. Now their outrage has turned into a political firestorm over the Provisional IRA.

There is a growing clamor for the IRA to disband, from the White House, where the mourning sisters have been invited to spend St. Patrick's Day, to Downing Street, to the IRA's home turf in Belfast.

Hear about the future of the IRA and whether it still has a place as a political party in today's Northern Ireland.

Guests:

Dan Keenan, Northern news editor for the Irish Times.

Bruce Morrison, US Congressman (D-Conn) from 1983-1991, principal advisor to Clinton on Irish affairs who led a delegation to Ireland in 1994 that was instrumental in brokering cease-fires in 1997 and 98.

Kevin Cullen, reporter and former Dublin bureau chief for the Boston Globe.

This program aired on March 10, 2005.

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