Anti-terrorism legislation and Northern Ireland
There’s an interesting difference between the recent attack by the Real IRA and all the previous incidents in Northern Ireland: This one took place in a post-9/11 world.
The Westminster Parliament has enacted lots of anti-terrorism legislation, all with Islamist terrorism in mind.
I wonder whether these laws will now be used in Northern Ireland.
Will we see suspects detained for a month before they see a judge, for instance?
At least the US are now backing away from torture, or perhaps we would’ve seen members of the Real IRA sent to Morocco for torturing?
If the anti-terrorism legislation is not applied to Northern Ireland, I guess that could be seen as racism.
It will be interesting to see how this develops.