WHEN the Irish Republican Army at last put aside its weapons, ending a century-long insurgency against the British state, witnesses were needed to confirm that the guns were gone for good. Two clergymen were chosen, Harold Good, a Protestant, and Alec Reid, a Catholic. As they travelled in secret between rural arms-dumps with the ira's quartermasters and an international team of weapons decommissioners, they noticed a young ira man with an old-fashioned rifle among the group. When the last of the arsenal had been destroyed, the young man marched up to the general in charge, clicked his heels and solemnly handed over his gun. Now in his 80s, Reverend Good recalls the moment: "Father Reid said to me, 'There goes the last weapon out of Irish politics.' We just fell silent.".
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