Northern Ireland - Ireland 2014 - page 509

towers were dismantled in 2006, and the army formally ended its 38-year-long Operation
Banner campaign in 2007.
A tiny splinter group of stubborn IRA diehards (calling themselves the “Real IRA”)
continues to smolder. Their efforts at publicity are roundly condemned not only by hard-
line Unionists, but also by former IRA leaders like government minister Martin McGuin-
ness and his Sinn Fein party, who now prefer to pursue their Nationalist goals through the
democratic process.
In 2010, the peace process was jolted forward by a surprisingly forthright apology
offered by British Prime Minister David Cameron, who expressed regret for the British
Army's offenses on Bloody Sunday (see sidebar on here ) . The apology was prompted by
the Saville Report—the results of an investigation conducted by the UK government as
part of the Good Friday Accord. It found that the 1972 shootings of Nationalist civil-rights
marchers on Bloody Sunday by British soldiers was “unjustified” and the victims inno-
cent (to the intense relief of the victims' families, who had fought since 1972 to clear their
loved ones' names).
Major hurdles to a lasting peace persist, but the downtown checkpoints are history,
and the “bomb-damage clearance sales” are over. In 2013, the G8 leaders of eight of the
largest economies in the world (US President Barack Obama, Russia's President Vladi-
mir Putin, and Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel to name a few) chose serene, lake-
splattered County Fermanagh to hold their annual summit. And today, more tourists than
ever are venturing north to Belfast and Derry, and cruise-ship crowds disembark in Belfast
to board charter buses that fan out to visit the Giant's Causeway (see here ) and Old Bush-
mills Distillery (see here ) .
Terminology
Ulster (one of Ireland's four ancient provinces) consists of nine counties in the northern
part of the island of Ireland. Six of these make up Northern Ireland (pronounced “Norn
Iron” by locals), while three counties remain part of the Republic.
Unionists —andthe more hardline, working-class Loyalists —want the Northtoremain
in the UK. The Ulster Unionist Party (UUP), the political party representing moderate
Unionist views, is currently led by Mike Nesbitt (Nobel Peace Prize co-winner David
Trimble led the UUP from 1995 to 2005). The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), led by
Peter Robinson (protégé of retired Reverend Ian Paisley), takes a harder stance in defense
of Unionism. The Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), the Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF),
and the Ulster Defense Association (UDA) are the Loyalist paramilitary organizations
mentioned most frequently in newspapers and on spray-painted walls.