The XML representation of issues do not currently include the CVS or Subversion notes displayed in the JIRA issue page. If this information would be available, for example by introducing a new "<vcs-comment>" tag, then the Eclipse JIRA Plugin (and others) could display this information where it is actually needed, that is, in a window inside the IDE. See also http://www.softwaretesting.de/jira/browse/ECLJIRA-68.