First anniversary of end to IRA campaign

Today marks the first anniversary of the end of the IRA's armed campaign.

Today marks the first anniversary of the end of the IRA's armed campaign.

Séanna Walsh, one of the longest-serving republican prisoners, read out a statement on this day last year saying the IRA army council had formally ordered an end to its armed campaign.

The statement said the IRA had ordered all units to dump their weapons, and all members have been "instructed to assist the development of purely political and democratic programmes through exclusively peaceful means".

Two months later, the head of the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning (IICD) General John de Chastelain announced that the IRA had disposed of all of its arms.

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The disarmament was verified by former Methodist president the Rev Harold Good and Redemptorist priest Fr Alex Reid, who acted as a go-between in the lead-up to the 1994 IRA ceasefire.

One year on, the ceasefire has held, although the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) is still reluctant to share power with Sinn Féin. The DUP was dissatisfied with last year's IRA decommissioning because of the absence of photographic proof.

Northern Secretary Peter Hain has warned that there is no flexibility on the deadline of November 24th for the establishment of a fully functioning Executive and Assembly in Northern Ireland.

Speaking last May Mr Hain said: "Come midnight on the 24th, assembly members' salaries will go on ice and benefits will be stopped. We won't blink. Northern Ireland politics has been about procrastination year upon year. We cannot continue like that."

At a press conference in Belfast today to mark the anniversary Sinn Fü/span>?in President Gerry Adams said the opportunity afforded by the ceasefire "could still be grasped by British and Irish governments.