Loyalists press Adams to be 'more open'
Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams was today due to face calls from a loyalist political party to be more open about republicanism as Northern Ireland prepared for the return of direct rule.
Progressive Unionist Party members were due to gather in East Belfast at their annual conference and were expected to hear their leader David Ervine urge Sinn Féin to be more honest in the process.
The East Belfast MLA, who was due to deliver his first speech as leader of the Ulster Volunteer Force-linked party, was also expected to outline his analysis of the current crisis facing the peace process and how he hoped Northern Ireland politicians would be able to clamber back out of it.
A party source said: “With the clock ticking on devolution and the return of direct rule, David will be identifying the problems that have occurred in the peace process.
“There is a big crisis of confidence in unionism right now when it comes to dealing with Sinn Féin.
“They feel that in the way the peace process has been handled, Sinn Fein have acted as corporate liars and they feel this simply must change.
“It is vital that we stick to the principles of the Belfast Agreement and David will be outlining how the PUP believes we should do that.”
Northern Ireland Secretary John Reid will announce on Monday how the Government intends to replace devolution with direct rule.
It is expected that two additional junior ministers from Westminster will be appointed to the Northern Ireland office, bringing the team under Dr Reid’s control to four.
They will assume responsibility for the running of the 10 Stormont executive departments.
There has also been increasing speculation that the British and Irish governments will seek to protect the North-South bodies established under the Good Friday Agreement through an intergovernmental conference.
However, after a meeting of his party’s executive yesterday, Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble warned that an enhanced role for the Irish government in Northern Ireland affairs would seriously undermine the Agreement.
