The Independent Monitoring Commission has described the IRA’s military campaign as “well and truly over”.

The IRA’s military campaign is “well and truly over”, according to a landmark report released yesterday (3 September) by the Independent Monitoring Commission (IMC).

The report also states that the group’s ruling Army Council – which directed the IRA’s terror attacks – is “by deliberate choice no longer operational or functional.” 

The IRA is longer recruiting or training new members and its membership continues to decline, watchdogs said.

IMC added that existing IRA members have been instructed not to engage in violence and said it did not think there had been any recent attacks of violence or intimidation.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown hailed the report as marking: “an important and significant day for Northern Ireland.”

Northern Ireland’s largest political party, the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), is however reported to have called for the Republican movement to confirm that the IRA has been completely abolished.

According to the Daily Record, Peter Robinson, Northern Ireland’s First Minister and leader of the DUP, said that while the report showed “very considerable progress” had been made, he wanted the IRA to go even further.

He said: “The Unionist community needs to be convinced by the Republican leadership that the IRA is out of business for good.”

According to media reports, Sinn Fein has dismissed the DUP’s comment in light of IMC’s findings.

The disagreement came ahead of upcoming talks between the DUP and Sinn Fein to be held mid-September in Stormont, which are aimed at securing the future of Northern Ireland’s power-sharing government.

To read the IMC’s report in full, click here

By Natasha Piscitelli