The Provisional IRA has been “largely disbanded” but Irish republican dissident groups and loyalist paramilitaries remain a sinister and criminal presence in many parts of Northern Ireland, according to an expert.
U.S. President Joe Biden arrived in Belfast on Tuesday night for a five-day tour of the island of Ireland timed to coincide with the 25th anniversary of the signing of the Good Friday Agreement which brought The Troubles to an end.
Colm Walsh, an academic at Queen’s University who has researched paramilitaries and criminal exploitation, said Northern Ireland was very different from how it was in 1998, but groups like the New IRA, the UVF, and the UDA still exerted a malevolent influence on young people in their communities….