The leadership of Oglaigh na hEireann has formally ordered an end to the armed campaign. This will take effect from 4pm this afternoon.

All IRA units have been ordered to dump arms.

All Volunteers have been instructed to assist the development of purely political and democratic programmes through exclusively peaceful means.

Volunteers must not engage in any other activities whatsoever.

The IRA leadership has also authorised our representative to engage with the IICD [Independent International Commission on Decommissioning] to complete the process to verifiably put its arms beyond use in a way which will further enhance public confidence and to conclude this as quickly as possible.

The brutal physics of modern traffic was borne in on me in a raw way standing by the busy Navan road just north of Tara yesterday evening for an hour while the latest protest against the proposed new motorway was in progress. This is an experience you don’t get driving along in your Toyota Corolla.

"What is your name and where are you from?" a policeman asked me when I rolled down my window at a checkpoint on the Kingscourt Road out of Navan last night.

"Sean Crudden from Jenkinstown, Dundalk," I replied fearlessly.
Garda: "Where are you coming from?"
SC: "From Navan - or rather from Maynooth."
Garda: "What were you doing in Navan."
SC: "I was at a protest against the new road."
Garda: "Were you protesting?"
SC: "I wouldn’t say I was protesting exactly - but I was there,"
I said with some trepidation.
Garda: "What were you doing there then?"
SC: "I was with my son. He helped publicise the protest."

"Well I disagree strongly with the protest," the policeman opined and the atmosphere thawed.

From Elaine and Ciaran on the newswire:The point blank killing of Jean Charles de Menezes, the lack of charging or even suspension of those who killed him (1 shot to the shoulder, 7 to the head) and the New Labour rationalizations that lay a basis for more of these killings to come redefine what is considered as acceptable collateral damage in this war. Blair has decided that these Judge Dredd scenes are part of the price 'we' are willing to pay for his war on Iraq. Meanwhile, the Ahern led government has made us morally culpable in the indiscriminate killings in the U.S invasions of Iraq & Afghanistan and have of course transformed Shannon Airport, hosting 25,000 U.S. troops a month, into a soft and significant target.

The absence of a courageous and nonviolently militant anti-war movement in the imperial centres enhances a vacuum for the pathetic mimicry of the fundamentalist warriors as they bring the war home to London. Whether these attacks and the state's post-attack prepackaged scenarios of expanding police powers (they want to increase the time they can detain a suspect without charge from 14 days to 3 months) and reduced liberties lead to the death of active citizenship remains to be seen. The pressures on the Muslim community, once active in the anti-war movement, to internally migrate and depoliticize will be massive.

More Indymedia Ireland Coverage Of The Death Of De Menezes:
Police shoot man dead on London Tube. "suspicious"
Bertie Ahern says: Al-Qaeda watched 'closely' - Shannon not Al-Qaeda Fly Trap

...And Of The Pitstop Ploughshares:
Pit Stop Ploughshares Head to Oct. 24th. Trial- Update & Call for Solidarity!