After 30 years of paramilitary activity, the Irish Republican Army is still capable of shocking thuggery, this time a wave of crimes culminating in a brutal murder outside a Belfast pub in January. That caused Sinn Fein, its political wing, to be disinvited from the White House celebration of St Patrick’s Day and sent its leader, Gerry Adams, scrambling for cover. This is the least of the IRA’s just deserts for brazenly covering up the homicidal behaviour of some ranking members in the beating and slashing of the murder victim, Robert McCartney, over a petty dispute. It dispatched a team to wipe the pub clean of evidence and terrorize 70 witnesses into silence. But the victim’s sisters would not be silenced in their outcry for justice.

The White House was wise to make the McCartney sisters honoured guests next week, leaving the IRA stewing after its boneheaded attempt at expiation: It made a gruesome offer to atone for the murder by shooting those it knows were responsible. The Bush administration has called on Sinn Fein to see to the disbanding of the IRA. That’s not likely anytime soon. But the IRA needs to take some strong initial steps, starting with shedding its activities as a criminal enterprise. Its leaders should return to a more honourable agenda and stop dancing around the promise to begin formal disarmament. — The New York Times