"Former prison governor, Professor Ian Acheson (inset) of the Counter Extremism Project, has also spoken out against the commissioner’s proposal – saying that any form of equivalence between the two groups would be the 'antithesis of reconciliation'."

CEP Senior Advisor Ian Acheson writes: "On this day, 25 years ago, not long after the ink had dried on the Good Friday Agreement, a car bomb exploded in the market town of Omagh in Country Tyrone, Northern Ireland. The bomb had been set in the town’s busy main shopping area by dissident republican terrorists styling themselves as the ‘Real IRA’. The group had rejected the acceptance by Sinn Fein, the Provisional IRA’s political mouthpiece, that Irish unification could not be achieved by violence, and instead bathed a community in blood."

"Ian Acheson, a senior adviser at the Counter Extremism Project, told The Independent that 'police officers in Northern Ireland don’t need much of an excuse to look for another job at the moment'.

'You’ve got to see this in context – not just of the security situation and the severe threat from dissident Republican terrorists – but also in relation to swingeing budget cuts, which the chief constable has said will result in falling numbers of officers,' Mr Acheson said."

CEP Senior Advisor Ian Acheson writes: "But in this part of the UK, police officers face an enduring and unique threat from a terrorist gang that is desperate to maintain its relevance by murdering them. Dissident republican terrorists who reject Northern Ireland’s 1998 peace agreement have tried repeatedly to kill police officers and in some cases have unfortunately succeeded."

CEP Senior Advisor Ian Acheson writes: "The real reason that Prevent could never gain traction within Northern Ireland is because there is a hierarchy of violent extremism which cannot be disturbed because of the political demographics and cultural ambiguities of a place where violent extremism is not only tolerated, but glamourised. The largest political party in the NI Assembly, Sinn Fein, is inextricably, indeed proudly, linked to a terrorist organisation and police forces either side of the border believe it is still ultimately controlled by the IRA’s Army Council."

CEP Senior Advisor Ian Acheson writes: "An off-duty senior detective in Northern Ireland’s police service was ambushed last night by masked gunmen as he helped at a football coaching event in Omagh, Country Tyrone. Two assailants fired at least four bullets into Detective Chief Inspector John Caldwell, shooting him on the ground as his terrified son looked on. He remains critically ill in hospital. PSNI detectives investigating his attempted murder are pursuing dissident republican terrorists in the ‘New IRA’ as a strong line of inquiry. Three men have been arrested."

CEP Senior Advisor Ian Acheson writes: "Nobody has ever been brought to justice for any of these murders. If the present government’s reckless proposals on amnesty are forced through Parliament, no one ever will be in any meaningful way. Republican terrorists do not have the monopoly on suffering or bestiality – plenty more of this sort of horror was inflicted by Loyalists. But the determination of the IRA cell to wipe out this male bloodline and their horrifying joyful glee on ‘mission accomplished’ is a landmark of sectarian hatred."