EXACTLY what did the IRA hope to achieve by Saturday's outrage in Manchester?

On the eve of Fathers' Day the centre was sure to be packed with kiddies and their mums spending pocket money to buy presents.

They were soft targets by any standards.

But it is typical of the actions we have come to expect from a bunch of bullet-brained cowards.

There is no way now that Sinn Fein can simply be allowed into the peace talks.

As Home Secretary Michael Howard said this weekend - you can't have a situation in which there's a bomb in Manchester on Saturday, and the announcement of a ceasefire on Monday and people allowed into talks on Tuesday.

But with crass insensitivity, Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams has re-tabled his demand for a place in the talks - without even acknowledging the Manchester blast.

This outrageous show of callous disregard for human life has widened the rift still further.

Miraculously, there were no deaths.

But the blast has wrecked the lives of more than 200 people, both physically and mentally.

Some may have to undergo amputations.

Others, many of them small children, will be badly scarred.

Innocent people will carry living memories of this horror for the rest of their lives.

And this is all because a bunch of IRA morons chose this particular day to wreck Manchester city centre.

But as the dust settles, it is important for the peace process to continue.

At the same time, the pussyfooting has to stop.

Over the last 12 months, everyone has bent over backwards to appease the whingeing IRA.

Like a petulant child it has been forgiven over and over again and offered yet more chances to make good.

And still it has thrown horrific tantrums.

It has done itself no favours.

The Americans, who were forging links with the IRA during the ceasefire, are now reviewing their attitude to Sinn Fein in the wake of the bombing.

US President Bill Clinton said he was "deeply outraged" by Saturday's explosion.

Irish Prime Minister John Bruton says Sinn Fein's credibility has suffered appalling damage.

It certainly has.

Saturday highlighted the fact that it is either nothing more than a mealy-mouthed front man or totally impotent, with no bearing on events in the IRA.

The time has come for drastic action.

The IRA wants war. So it should get war.

The organisation is not a secret one.

Training grounds and movements are well known to army intelligence, as are the individuals in charge of the psychopathic organisation.

The time has come for the British, Irish and American governments to unite and go in hard to let these murdering cowards know the rest of the world means business - with a return to internment if necessary.

Now is not the time to pull punches.

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