THERE will be many a bitter pill to be swallowed as part of the Northern Ireland peace process.

But one that will surely stick in the craw of millions of decent-minded people is the demand of IRA chiefs that life-long "war pensions" be paid to every republican volunteer who took part in the terror campaign for 30 years against British rule in Ulster.

Coming on top of the disclosure that more than 400 loyalist and republican terrorists preparing for freedom under the peace deal are to each get a £3,500 grant to help them "adjust" to their liberty, this "war pension" demand is one too many.

For no matter how accommodating all sides will have to be to achieve peace in Ulster, the notion that republican terrorists are owed everlasting giros is as ridiculous as it is offensive.

That is because these people either supported or participated in a campaign to blow the British out of the province and challenged the right of them to rule the place at all.

If then, according to those lights, the British had no right to be in Ireland, then its taxpayers have no moral or legal duty to recompense those who would recognise the British state.

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