THE peace process in Northern Ireland hangs by a thread as the intransigence of the IRA threatens to turn the clock back to the misery of the 1970s, 80s and 90s. There can be no doubt as to where the blame lies.

This time it is not the Unionists, the British government or the Irish government who have backed themselves into a corner - it is the the IRA and its political lackeys, Sinn Fein.

They have taken everything and given nothing.

Prison doors swung open to release some of the UK's most ruthless killers.

The RUC is being completely reorganised and in the eyes of many observers humiliated.

And devolution was started without arms decommissioning.

A few years ago all of this would have been unthinkable.

But the British government's determination to solve the Northern Ireland problem once and for all was such that it was prepared to jump through hoops. The IRA and Sinn Fein accepted all this but refused to budge one inch, even though the Good Friday Agreement demands complete disarmament by May.

Clearly, it would be impossible to dispose of the IRA's massive arsenal - estimated at around 100 tons of guns, missiles, ammunition and explosives - in three months.

And the indications from the shadowy mouthpieces of the IRA are that it has no intention of disarming, arguing that so far there has been peace despite its arms dumps, so why bother?

Para-militaries on the so called loyalist side also have to disarm, of course. But they will take their line from the much more powerful IRA.

We have said many times that if there is a return to the sickening violence of the last three decades it will be the fault of the IRA and Sinn Fein.

And it would appear that at long last the penny is beginning to drop in other parts of the world.

In the USA, where Irish Americans have been bankrolling the IRA for years, the blame is at last being laid at the door of the terrorists. The Washington Post and the New York Times, which both carry weight at the White House, are saying that their President should insist the IRA starts disarming.

There is also a deafening silence from the Kennedy family, who have never hidden their admiration of Irish terrorists.

Perhaps, at long last, Clinton will come down off the fence and tell the IRA that even in his own country the blinkers are coming off and the organisation is being seen as the only obstacle to peace in Northern Ireland.

It will take a move of this magnitude to shake the IRA and Sinn Fein to their senses.

For, let us be in no doubt, the situation across the water is bleak and the wonderful opportunity to achieve a lasting peace seems to be slipping away.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.