In December 2001 The Sovereign Nation, the newspaper of the 32 County Sovereignty Movement and the Real IRA, condemned the Provisional IRA‘s move towards decommissioning as its “final betrayal” of Irish Republicanism:

“On Tuesday October 23rd the Provisional IRA became the first Republican organisation in Irish history to decommission its weapon at the behest of the Unionist and British establishments. Gerry Adams has described this act as “ground-breaking”, but for many Irish Republicans the PIRA’s decision to decommission represents the final betrayal.

Republicans across Ireland should never forget that it was the British government who originally initiated the demand for PIRA decommissioning. In March 1995, during a diplomatic visit to Washington, Patrick Mayhew insisted that the PIRA must decommission as a pre-requisite to Sinn Fein’s entry into all-party talks. Although the context has changed, and the Provisional movement has now met these demands in order to maintain their British ministerial portfolios. Who in 1995 would have forecast that within six years the PIRA would have capitulated and complied with these British terms of surrender?…

It is important that Republicans throughout Ireland remain focused on the fundamental political principles that lie at the heart of this demoralising process. The Provisional’s willingness to decommission is indicative of the political cancer that has infested the movement in recent years. It is true to state, as some Provisional apologists have, that any Republican organisation can destroy arms and go on to purchase more at a latter date. However it is equally true to state that no Irish Republican organisation can ever reclaim a principle once it has been abandoned. By administering British rule in Ireland, the Provisionals have accepted its legitimacy in perpetuity. Never again can they with any shred of political integrity denounce the illegitimacy of the British presence…

Implicit in the PIRA’s recent decision to decommission is the acknowledgement that they have lost the long war and are a defeated organisation… The Provisional leadership will stand condemned at the bar of Irish history and will be remembered with infamy for their recent ignominious actions.”