Dissidents leave a stark reminder of what we thought we had left behind

They must have thought they looked well in their serried ranks on a Dublin street last Saturday. Their identikit Persil-white shirts, black ties and black trousers stood out. Some of the white-shirted ones were acting as pallbearers at a funeral. Some of their comrades/colleagues chose a different style for the occasion - green military-style sweaters, black trousers, black belts, black berets, sunglasses and, despite the benign weather, green scarves tied tightly and serving to conceal most of their faces. They were the 'colour party' and marched along with the funeral and reacted to shouted orders from one of their number, even firing a volley of shots before the funeral got underway. However, these men weren't making a fashion statement. They are a stark reminder of what we thought we had left behind a long time ago. The sight of an organised paramilitary funeral on the streets of our capital city surprises, even shocks us. We had forgotten what they looked like, forgotten the paramilitary dress, wiped the sound of the shouted orders and the tramping feet from our memories. That was then, but this is now. Of course, the so-called Real IRA, which organised the funeral of gun victim Alan Ryan last week, may feel it is following a fine tradition, one which gives the fallen 'soldiers' what they feel is 'respect, in the same way as the UVF turned out to organise a full paramilitary funeral for Shankill butcher Lenny Murphy, and in the same way as Harris Boyle and Wesley Somerville, murderers of the Miami Showband members, were accorded the same 'honour' by the UVF. And in much the same way as Thomas Begley, bomber of the Shankill fish shop Frizzell's, was 'honoured' by one of our political leaders Gerry Adams, who acted as one of the pallbearers at his funeral. There were some people directly involved in Alan Ryan's funeral who approved mightily of all that went on last week. We can take it also that some attendees could be included in the 'sneaking regarders' category, those who may not be members of the Real IRA but who experience a frisson of excitement from the appearance of 'the lads' in their uniforms. In fact, the Real IRA are the 'Sawdust Caesars' of this generation, all muscle and talk and no brains. They'd rather die for Ireland than work for it. The tricolour was flown from a height at the Ryan funeral, used as a symbol of the outstanding republican he claimed to be. In fact, the Real IRA is nothing but a neo-fascist organisation, set up and organised to defy the democratic will of the vast majority of the people of Ireland, North and South. They are the inheritors of no fine tradition and use republicanism as a thin cover-all veil for their activities. Our democratically-elected Minister for Justice, Alan Shatter, speaks for the majority of us when he said the show of strength by the so-called Real IRA last weekend was "reprehensible and unacceptable". He went on: "Paramilitary trappings should not blind people to the fact that what is at issue is criminal terrorism carried out by people who, for their own reasons, want to drag the people of this island back to a dark past. In treating the will of the people, North and South, with contempt, they dishonour democracy." Over 30 years of the Troubles on this island should have taught all of us the uselessness of violence, the cost in lost and maimed lives, the losses in economic terms, the stoking of sectarian hatred, the terrible damage to community relations. We are slowly trying to build a decent and honest society, one in which no single person need fear the threat of violence. It is a hard and difficult task. We can well do without the 'help' of the Real IRA in doing so.