Adams urges 'measured' views on bank raid arrests
Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams was today standing by his party’s view that the IRA was innocent of the Northern Bank raid as police in the Republic of Ireland questioned a colleague about money laundering.
As Gardaí questioned a former Sinn Féin councillor along with six other people following raids in Cork and Dublin, the West Belfast MP said people should not rush to judge republicans over the arrests.
Mr Adams, who is preparing to return to Ireland from Spain where he had been on a book tour and meeting Basque and Catalan leaders, said he had no reason to disbelieve the IRA’s repeated denials about its involvement in the Northern Bank raid.
“I have asked for a full report from our party head office, so I can deal with this when I return,” he said.
“I think people have to be very measured.
“As we speak I have no reason to change what I have said publicly.
“But let’s be clear, Sinn Féin will not run away from our responsibilities on any of these matters.
“We would not have been able to play the role we have played in the peace process by ignoring issues or by not changing events and developments over the years.”
Mr Adams was responding to calls from political opponents for a statement on the latest arrests.
Opposition Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny claimed any other party in the Republic would have commented publicly on arrests while north of the border.
Democratic Unionist MP Jeffrey Donaldson called on the British government to revive the Northern Ireland Assembly and freeze Sinn Féin out of government.
The IRA has in recent weeks been accused of carrying out December’s £26.5m (€38m) Northern Bank heist and members of the Provisionals have been blamed for the fatal stabbing and beating of 33-year-old forklift driver Robert McCartney outside a Belfast city centre bar.
Both incidents have plunged the peace process into its deepest crisis since the forging of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998.
