Adams and Ahern to meet for crucial talks
The pressure on Northern Ireland’s peace process was intensifying today as Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams prepared for a crucial meeting with Taoiseach Bertie Ahern in Dublin.
The West Belfast MP was heading to the Irish capital for emergency talks as unionists continued to call on Prime Minister Tony Blair to reprimand Sinn Fein over republican violence.
Members of Sinn Fein’s youth wing were accused by the Police Service of Northern Ireland yesterday of attacking a rural police station in Rosslea, Co Fermanagh, with stones and bottles.
Republicans have also been accused by unionists of initiating street clashes in Belfast in recent weeks and of continuing to breach the IRA ceasefire.
David Trimble’s Ulster Unionists have been alarmed by claims that the Provisionals were behind the break-in at a top security police station in March and were targeting people and testing weapons in Colombia.
The allegations, denied by the IRA and Sinn Fein, have caused some in the Ulster Unionist Party to question republican support for the Good Friday Agreement.
In a bid to allay unionist concerns, Mr Adams told an inauguration dinner for the party’s first Mayor of Belfast, Alex Maskey on Saturday night that he wanted to play ‘‘a leadership role’’ in trying to bring an end to republican violence.
‘‘I want to reiterate again that Irish republicans are absolutely and firmly committed to the peace process,’’ he said.
‘‘I want to assure unionists that the republican promotion of the equality and justice and human rights agenda is about securing the entitlements of every citizen and of building a strong and open democracy in which we can all promote and articulate our differing goals peacefully and democratically.
‘‘I want to repeat again tonight what I said last July in London that I am totally committed to playing a leadership role in bringing a permanent end to political conflict on our island including the end of physical force republicanism.’’
But Mr Trimble warned Mr Blair that if republicans were not forced at crisis talks in Northern Ireland, involving the British and Irish governments and the pro-Good Friday Agreement, to abandon violence once and for all, it would lose public support.
‘‘I think this might actually be Tony Blair’s last chance to get a grip on the situation,’’ the Northern Ireland First Minister said.
‘‘It is clear, and senior police officers have said this, that the violence has been orchestrated by paramilitaries on all sides but primarily by the republican movement, and we’ve had a serious increase of violence and no effective action so far by the Government in response to this.
‘‘The inevitable consequence of that is that support for the present arrangements is rapidly vanishing.’’
