IRA actions must match Adams' words - opponents
Gerry Adams received a cautious response to his call for the IRA to abandon arms, with opponents saying the Provisionals’ actions now need to match his words.
Adams stopped just short of urging the IRA to disband by calling for the organisation to abandon the gun and embrace politics forever.
The West Belfast MP declared yesterday: “In the past I have defended the right of the IRA to engage in armed struggle.
“I did so because there was no alternative for those who would not bend the knee, or turn a blind eye to oppression, or for those who wanted a national republic.
“Now there is an alternative … the way forward is by building political support for republican and democratic objectives across Ireland and by winning support for these goals internationally.”
The statement will be viewed as a bold attempt by the Sinn Féin leader to kick-start a debate within republicanism about the IRA’s future.
However, political opponents in Belfast were expected to be more cautious, with the Rev Ian Paisley’s Democratic Unionists insisting the IRA must prove it is true to Mr Adams’ words.
The British and Irish governments acknowledged the significance of Mr Adams’ remarks but insisted it was vital there was an end to all IRA activity.
Taoiseach Bertie Ahern said the statement had potential to move the peace process forward but would be judged against how the Provisionals responded.
He said: “Nothing less than a complete and decisive end to all IRA activity and capability will be acceptable if there is to be any prospect of achieving inclusive politics in Northern Ireland.”
Downing Street said: “Obviously the key will be what the IRA does as a result, and it’s on that that any final judgment must be made.
“But we hope this represents the way forward for republicanism because the only way forward is through exclusively peaceful and democratic means.”
Following the collapse of talks last December to revive power sharing in Northern Ireland, the IRA faced demands in Belfast, London, Dublin and Washington to end all criminal and paramilitary activity.
Those calls intensified following December’s £26.5m (€38m) raid on the Northern Bank in Belfast and IRA involvement in the murder in January of 33-year-old father-of-two Robert McCartney outside a bar in the city.
Mr Adams was denied a meeting with US president George Bush during St Patrick’s Day celebrations in Washington along with other Northern Ireland politicians.
He was also snubbed by veteran US senator Edward Kennedy.
In Belfast, Mr Adams’ speech was dismissed as a political stunt on the second day of campaigning for the General Election by Mr Paisley.
The DUP leader, who the Sinn Féin leader will have to strike a deal with if there is to be a return to power sharing, said: “It is an insult to democrats what he is saying and no one will be taken in. I don’t think there is any hope for Sinn Féin and the IRA.
“There must be a complete and total abandonment of IRA/Sinn Féin and that’s not going to happen.”
The Tories’ Northern Ireland spokesman David Liddington said it was only through actions, and not words, that the IRA could gain people’s trust.
“People need to see evidence that the Republican Movement has changed for good. That means an end to republican involvement in crime,” he said.
In Dublin, opposition Irish Labour Party leader Pat Rabbitte was also sceptical, claiming Mr Adams had delivered a much-hyped but hollow speech.
“Despite the promises of a major breakthrough in the pre-publicity, his initiative amounts to little more than a call on the IRA to initiate internal consultations around the principle of ‘purely political and democratic activity’,” the Dublin South West TD said.
