The announcement by the British government on 10 August that it had foiled an alleged terrorist plot against transatlantic aircraft provided the perfect occasion for a counter-attack by the supporters of the so-called "war on terror". The genuinely terrifying prospect of a small group of fanatical terrorists committing mass murder in the skies provided more comfortable terrain for the US cheerleaders than had the pulverisation of Lebanon and the murder of hundreds of civilians by the high-tech weaponry of the Israeli army, supplied and tacitly endorsed by the US.

Despite the carping from revisionist commentators in the run up to the Easter Rising parade, romantic nationalism won out in the end and Monday's newspaper reports of the “spectacular success” were made with lumps in the throats and tears in the eyes.