This time for IRA, is it peace?

Before there was an Al-Qaeda, the Irish Republican Army was committing acts of terrorism, promoting hatred between religions and waging an underground war against the British government.

More than 3,600 Catholics and Protestants have been killed since 1969, many of them neither soldiers nor zealots but citizens caught in the cross-fires. Eight years ago, the IRA agreed in principle to lay down its arms. But only last week did the group announce its intention to actually do so and call an end to the sectarian violence. British Prime Minister Tony Blair called it a "step of unparalleled magnitude." Pope Benedict XVI said it was "beautiful news which contrasts with the sorrowful business" of the past three-plus decades.

Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern, however, sounded the note of caution the world needed to hear. He said the announcement means nothing unless "the IRA's words are borne out by verified actions." The disarmament was supposed to occur after an agreement seven years ago, after all, and evidence of the IRA's criminal behavior persists. In January, IRA members stabbed to death a Catholic man in a barroom dispute over his loyalty. Investigators also believe that the IRA was behind last year's $50 million robbery of a Belfast bank. Mr. Blair also spoke of the many "false dawns and dashed hopes" that have pointed to a peace that never came.

Skeptics found encouragement in the quick response of the British government, which began dismantling military posts in Northern Ireland hours after the peace declaration. The British army has about 12,000 soldiers stationed there, down from about 20,000 eight years ago. Gerry Adams, leader of the IRA political arm Sinn Fein, said the withdrawal sets the stage for the next important step -- finding a workable formula for Protestant-Catholic power sharing in the government. To craft one will take face-to-face talks between Sinn Fein and Ian Paisley's pro-Britain Democratic Unionist Party, a difficult achievement in itself.

The IRA's decision to "dump arms" was based largely on the pragmatic calculation that there was more to be gained through diplomacy than combat. It took 36 years of bloodshed for these terrorists to change their minds.