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| 26-July-2025 |
Two decades after Séanna Walsh announced the Provos’ historic cessation to the world, former prisoners, a police chief and academics reflect on whether group’s armed campaign achieved its goals or represented defeat disguised as victory.
It was a softly spoken former prisoner in a white shirt who made one of the most momentous declarations in republican history.
Standing in front of a tricolour, Séanna Walsh became the first person since the 1972 truce talks to publicly represent the IRA without wearing a balaclava.
On July 28, 2005, the republican who had spent almost half his life in jail announced a “formal end to the armed campaign” from 4pm that day. All Provisional units were ordered to “dump arms”, and the organisation pledged to decommission its weapons.
In the statement recorded on DVD for broadcast media, IRA members were instructed “to assist the development of purely political and democratic programmes through exclusively peaceful means”.
It added: “Volunteers must not engage in any other activities whatsoever.”
Walsh was carefully chosen to deliver the declaration. A former friend and cellmate of Bobby Sands, he had spent a total of 21 years in prison.
Continue @ Belfast Telegraph.
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