AS THE horses line up this evening for the re-arranged Grand National, something else is taking place, apart from the world's most famous steeplechase.

It is a national demonstration of defiance to the IRA.

They are being told in no uncertain terms that they can achieve nothing by their cowardly evil.

And just what did they hope to achieve on Saturday with their bomb scare at Aintree?

They have done nothing for their cause except set it back years.

How stupid!

For were any party now to talk of conceding anything to Sinn Fein there would be outrage - not just in Britain, but in Ireland and internationally.

This act of spiteful folly has brought Sinn Fein no nearer the place they claim at the negotiating table. Indeed, it has put them miles further away. It is only by the renunciation of violence and the chaos-seeking terror tactics - like those at Aintree, on the Midlands motorways and at Wilmslow - that the Irish republican demands will be listened to.

And only then, when a lasting ceasefire gives credibility to the their claim to recognition and participation in determining the future of Ulster.

Yet the bewildering fact is that, had the IRA not forsaken the opportunity for peace by ending its ceasefire, it could already be well down that path.

Instead, they prefer this bloody-mindedness that leads them to nothing but contempt.

And just how graphically that is demonstrated today by the determination that the Grand National must go ahead.

And how, too, it was shown by the rallying spirit of the ordinary people of Merseyside who rushed in all sorts of ways to help stranded racing fans.

It is a manifestation of the we-will-not-be-beaten spirit.

All the IRA do when they strike with bombs or threats is to inspire that spirit - and defeat themselves.

When will they ever learn?

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.