Belfast here we come

We're just about a fortnight into the IRA cessation, and already enough other shoes have dropped to keep Imelda Marcos happy. One is the "surprise" return of three Irish fugitives from Colombian "justice," a dilemma that has been lingering since last December. But there's really no end of potential mischief.

For instance, Sinn Fein occasionally get in trouble with the accessories being sold on their website or that appear to be circulate with their approval. The "Sniper at Work" t-shirt (with a logo in the style of a road works sign) was deemed over the edge but the current t-shirt collection still pushes a few buttons while adapting to the times; do they pay royalties to Live 8 for that Make Partition History shirt?

Consider now a trend from Philadelphia (as reported by Philadelphia Weekly) -- the trade in "Stop Snitching" t-shirts and similar paraphenalia carrying gang-style warnings about the perils to informers (touts or grasses in Northern Ireland terminology). Given the globalisation of fashion trends, how long can it be before one of these shirts pops up on an Irish street -- perhaps, in the usual snafu tradition, being worn by a person connected with the Shinners even as they claim to be cooperating with policing?