So they HAD never gone away, you know

'They haven"t gone away you know,' was the phrase Northern Irish people always used about the IRA - and indeed, the loyalist paramilitaries.And this week, as the Real IRA evilly took two lives and the Continuity IRA took a further victim as part of their quest for 'Irish freedom', everyone was proved right.There was genuine shock throughout the entire 32 counties as word broke of the savage murder of two British soldiers on Saturday night.The two men, were dressed in desert fatigues, just hours from leaving for Afghanistan. How worried their families must have been to know they were leaving the 'safety' of Northern Ireland, and heading to a warzone.Four others were injured in the shooting. Among them, a Polish man. His family will, no doubt, clearly understand that he was a 'legitimate target' as he was supplying food to the British Army.And then on Monday, the murder of a PSNI officer.Even in peaceful places, like the South, the police are in a dangerous job. But they do that willingly: they attend to scenes and situations that would horrify the rest of us. PC Stephen Carroll was shot in the head at close range as he, with others, responded to a 999 call.It"s like the bad old days all over again.Now the question is: are we going to have loyalist terrorists swinging back into action with some 'reprisals', as the tit-for-tat killings in the North were, for so long described.This morning, Tuesday, chillingly, the Continuity IRA said: 'As long as there is British involvement in Ireland, these attacks will continue.'Great. Thanks boys. Let"s just wait now and see what 'the other side' throws into the debate.As the economies of both the UK and Ireland struggle and strain in their attempt to get through the credit crisis that has a strangehold on the world; as unemployment soars, as people lose their houses; as families get deeper into debt, we may be about to wave peace goodbye.But then again, in the South, when we"ve spoken of 'peace' that was 'peace' as we know it. The 'peace' that Northern Ireland has been experiencing tastes somewhat different, and feels somewhat less 'peaceful'. The punishment beatings still go on - and indeed have been increasing in frequency; there are still no-go areas for each side of the divide; the nationalists and the unionists still try to control and rule their respective communities; and there"s been, all along, a hard core of hardline fanatics who regard both Sinn Féin and the DUP as having 'sold out'. It"s worrying to realise that the most hardline of the North"s political parties aren"t even hardline enough for some of their constituency. While most people on both sides of the divide were prepared to live with the peace process, let time heal the ills and divisions, and await the dawning of an era of genuine peace, it now appears there"ve been some for whom 'the peace process' was not any sort of answer to Northern Ireland"s problems at all.Ironically, just days after Hugh Orde"s 'they haven"t gone away you know' warning of last week, a report showed that Northern Ireland was faring better than any other part of the UK in the current recession - and it was clear it was that it was faring better than the South.It will be interesting to see how well growth will continue if companies find themselves having to deal with terrorism again; if pubs and hotels have to worry about bombs being left on their premises; if shops have to close down to carry out searches for incendiary devices; if families have to start checking their cars for booby traps before they drive their kids to school; if people have their hearts in their mouths when there"s a knock on their door at night.There are three families grieving now over the unnecessary and vicious murders of their sons. Let"s pray there come no other such deaths.