Revenge

most.
When Miller was younger everything seemed black and white. The terrorists that formed the IRA were just vile murderers to be hunted down. As he grew older, he realized most things in life were actually a shade of grey. Since he had left Ireland and understood more of the history, he didn’t have any greater sympathy for the IRA but understood better how they had come about and flourished in their community. There can be no greater motivator for evil than a huge sense of injustice.
He had ventured back a couple of years ago to visit Cork, something he couldn’t have dreamed of doing a few years earlier. He’d even kissed the Blarney Stone at Mary’s insistence, as she felt he needed to gain a bit more of the gift of the gab. Where the legend originated that kissing the stone endows the kisser with the gift of the gab is uncertain. Many of the stories recount how the stone was taken to Scotland and in 1314 Robert the Bruce presented it to Cormac McCarthy who built Blarney Castle, to thank him for his support.
Miller hadn’t realized what it would entail when he agreed to visit Blarney Castle. He’d climbed to the top of the castle and then had to lean over backwards on the parapet’s edge to reach the stone, while holding on to two iron rails. He had felt a bit foolish but millions of others had gone before him and Mary was insistent.
He understood she was hinting that too often he kept his thoughts to himself and could seem quite introverted in company. It wasn’t really the case. He just preferred only to speak when he had something worth saying. He found all too many people prattled on for ages, without ever saying anything worth hearing. He wasn’t convinced kissing the stone had made any difference but it was a good story to share over dinner.
Miller had known many fanatics over the years. They had always come in many guises, from animal rights to anti-nuclear protesters and the IRA but nowadays they were all secondary to the overwhelming threat posed by Al Qaida. Whatever the terrible danger presented by former terrorist threats, at least you knew they weren’t willing to walk into a crowded public place and blow themselves up for their cause. Even the vilest IRA terrorist had wanted to awake to read and gloat over newspaper reports the next day.
It had also been far easier to infiltrate IRA cells or develop a network of informants. Al Qaida took conviction to a whole new level. Their religious fanaticism made them difficult to penetrate. So did the reality that it was virtually impossible for anyone white, which was still the predominant colour of those fighting terror. With their wealthy Middle Eastern backers, they also had the finances to globally attack America and its supporters including of course the UK. Miller had known most of the IRAs leading figures. Known where they lived and worked. Though they seemed terrible dark days at the time, he had learned that everything was relative.
Miller was, to say the least, surprised that prominent IRA members had been carrying out such a crime on the mainland. Since the latest ceasefire the IRA had become the new Mafia, involving themselves in every crime imaginable. Everything from Bank robberies to extortion were commonplace and today they seemed more interested in filling their coffers with the profits of dealing in drugs, rather than changing the political landscape. He expected to find them being run by an Al Capone or even a Don Corleone clone in the not too distant future but so far they had shown no desire to transport their crime wave to this side of the sea.
Miller read the IRA statement saying that they were not involved but admitting the two men had once been members, who had been banished for failing to follow orders and abide by the Good Friday Agreement. Miller remembered 1997 and the agreement by both sides to disarm as if it was only yesterday. They had gone out drinking to celebrate something they had worked many years for and he thought would signal an easier life but that hope had been short lived, as the following year the Real IRA had carried out the Omagh bombing, killing twenty nine people.
He was inclined to believe the IRA statement, as targeting Melanie Adams would attract a great deal of unwanted focus on their criminal activities and further alienate their American supporters. Too much public violence and bloodshed would undoubtedly adversely affect the business of making money. If, as he suspected, the statement was true, then he had to smile at the thought of the leadership running around desperately trying to cover their arses and apportion blame to each other. It might at least temporarily divert them from their normal life of crime.
He adjusted his glasses and also read the press release from Sinn Fein, the republican political party, which condemned the attack on Melanie Adams. Miller had to smile at how times had changed. Sinn Fein was the new definition of political correctness. They had one or two senior figures who Miller knew better from their days as IRA activists.
Miller considered the worrying possibility that Murphy and Maguire had joined one of the splinter groups such as the Real IRA or Continuity IRA. Over the last year, Belfast had seen the first sectarian murders for many a year and a general escalation in violence. One huge bomb had been found before it could be detonated and there was a real concern amongst the intelligence community that the breakaway IRA dissidents were trying to drag the country back into terrible times.
There was always the constant threat of the troubles spreading across the sea and the Real IRA had recently been making a lot of noise about wanting to blow up London’s bankers but so far it had remained just a threat. However, to Miller’s way of thinking, this had more the hallmarks