THE BRITISH and Irish governments are seeking to strip groups such as the Real IRA and the Continuity IRA of the term dissident republican because they argue it does a “disservice” to the term republican and dissident.
Northern Secretary Owen Paterson, following up on recent similar classification by the Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin, has taken to calling dissidents “residual terrorist groups”, a term he used in the House of Commons yesterday during Northern Ireland question time.
Mr Paterson has also urged the PSNI and British government departments and other British state bodies to use the new phrase, residual terrorist groups, or RTGs because, he contended, the term dissident bestowed on these groups an undeserved status.
“Dissident is a term we would use for such people as Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn who challenged the system in the Soviet Union,” he added. “It is not a term we are comfortable applying to a terrorist group which has chosen to be left behind.”
He made his comments on a day when PSNI detectives arrested eight people in the greater Belfast area on suspicion of involvement with the groups.
Seven men aged between 18 and 45 and a 23-year-old woman were arrested by detectives from the PSNI’s serious crime branch following searches in north and west Belfast, Newtownabbey and Dunmurry. A “large quantity” of ammunition was found, police said. They were being questioned last night in Antrim police station.
