Why have the parties lost trust in each other in the Northern Ireland peace process?
Decommissioning and disbandment Unionists have increasingly believed that republicans are breaking the spirit of the deal by not matching their entry into democratic politics with the end of the IRA. In the past year, there have been two groundbreaking acts of decommissioning by the IRA. In return, the British government has scaled down the security presence. However unionists complain decommissioning is vague in nature and without a timetable. Unionist critics say they don’t know if republicans are pursuing a “dual strategy” of taking part in constitutional politics while retaining the capacity to return to violence. They want to hear that “the war is over” and see the IRA consigned to history. Street violence Unionists say republicans have serious questions to answer over their role in continuing street violence. Police officers say the IRA has been involved in clashes with both their own officers and loyalist mobs over the past year as well as other acts of terrorism. The most recen
