Sinn Féin poll success 'mandate for end of IRA'
Sinn Féin’s success in the Westminster and local elections in Northern Ireland is a mandate for the IRA to disband, party leader Gerry Adams said today.
Mr Adams also added that he would like to see closure on the peace process impasse during British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s remaining term in office.
Speaking in Dublin, Mr Adams said that his April 6 appeal to the IRA to embrace politics to achieve its aim was endorsed by the Sinn Féin tally of five MPs and 126 district council seats.
“My call and my appeal was a public one and therefore I do interpret Sinn Féin’s result as an endorsement of that call.
“In this the final phase of Tony Blair’s premiership, we have a very unique opportunity to sort out all of these matters. But it needs a collective push to move it forward.
“Mr Blair has been very good on some of these core issues. It is my view that he wants to bed them down. He wants it to be part of his legacy and therefore there is a relatively limited time, the time to bed it down is now.”
