On the Scene: Peace Comes Dropping Hard

Dublin

WE HAVE beaten the British Army. So Gerry Adams, the leader of Sinn Fein, told a public meeting in Belfast last month. His claim derived a certain credibility from the place in which it was made. He was addressing an estimated 10,000 supporters outside Belfast City Hall. Sinn Fein had never been allowed to hold a meeting in the city center before. Its presence there was an index of the party’s increasing acceptability to the authorities. And Sinn Fein means the IRA, a connection Mr.