Northern Ireland: More Militant Activity

A police officer was shot dead in County Armagh, Northern Ireland, the evening of March 9, reportedly by a splinter faction of the Irish Republican Army (IRA). The IRA waged its deadliest campaign of violence from the 1960s to the 1990s, but activity dropped off severely after the Good Friday Accords were signed in 1998. Militant activity has picked up in recent months, though; the IRA now is a shadow of its former self, but its various militant factions are very well organized and capable of stirring up problems on the Emerald Isle as the economic crisis fuels discontent.