In Northern Ireland, a republican paramilitary group has issued a statement saying it has renounced violence. The Irish National Liberation Army (INLA), a splinter group of the IRA, says that armed conflict is over and that it wants to achieve its goals through peaceful political struggle. It says it is also prepared to surrender its weapons.

The INLA was responsible for some of the bloodiest violence in the region’s conflict, which lasted from the late 1960s until a 1998 peace accord. In 1982, it killed 17 people with a bomb attack on a bar in Londonderry. In 1979, it murdered the British Conservative Party's Northern Ireland spokesman Airey Neave in London. In the last few years, it has shifted its activities to such criminal enterprises as drug smuggling.

Although Ireland’s Foreign Minister, Michael Martin, called the announcement “a welcome development,” the British and Irish authorities were guarded in their reaction to the announcement and said they would like to see proof of the organisation’s claim.

Sinn Fein, the political wing of the IRA, also reacted sceptically, noting the INLA’s reputation for violence.

Photo of INLA poster by PPCC Antifa (flickr)