Northern Ireland: Shadow Of a Gunman

Sands starves to death, and others vow to follow

As British army helicopters clattered anxiously overhead, some 50,000 Northern Irish Catholics lined the streets of Belfast last week for an emotional ceremony that was part funeral, part political demonstration. A lone piper led the way as thousands of mourners followed a Daimler hearse bearing a coffin draped in the green, white and orange flag of the Irish Republic. Beside the hearse strode seven hooded members of the outlawed Irish Republican Army, dressed in mottled green combat jackets and berets.

At Andersonstown Road, in the heart of a Catholic section, the...

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