Better late than never

There's been some cautious rejoicing this week over the news that the Provisional IRA has decided to give up what it calls the "armed struggle", a phrase that always reminds me of the line from Monty Python's Life of Brian: "it's symbolic of his struggle against reality".

I can't help wondering if the IRA is giving up violence because it's finally realised that it wil not achieve its goals that way, or just because it can't compete against real evil bastards like Al Qaeda.