From: Independent.ie
Provisional IRA may have ‘left the stage’ but the organisation is haunted by crimes past and present
Maeve Sheehan
The Provisional IRA has left the stage: so said the DUP MP Jeffrey Donaldson a couple of years ago. As one of the North’s most senior unionists, Mr Donaldson was speaking in the context of the Northern Ireland peace process. But the involvement of former IRA members in crime, organised, opportunistic or sexual, is a different story.
The names of former IRA bombers, killers and activists continue to crop up in dozens of police investigations, on both sides of the Border, into crimes ranging from smuggling, racketeering, extortion, murder and sexual abuse.
