Republicans 'must bridge gap with unionists'
Republicans at all levels must try to bridge the gap separating themselves from unionists in the Northern Ireland peace process, Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams claimed today.
Mr Adams, MP for West Belfast, said in a statement aimed at the unionist community the West that he believed the IRA had made attempts recently to assure Unionists that it posed no threat to them.
He also called for calm in sectarian flashpoint areas during the Protestant marching season.
Mr Adams said: “Despite the difficulties we all currently face due to the collapse of the political institutions, the cancellation of the Assembly elections and the failure to implement the Good Friday Agreement, I strongly believe that republicans and nationalists need to approach northern Protestants in the language of invitation.
“This should be reflected in the words and political concepts we use daily. Sinn Fein’s engagement with the unionist community is a sincere effort to listen to and understand unionist concerns.
“I am aware of the gulf of mistrust that exists between republicans and unionists. I know that 30 years of conflict makes it difficult for unionists to hear what I have to say but I would ask them to listen to and accept my words as my personal attempt to address their concerns.
“I would also ask that unionists, in the same spirit, recognise and address republican and nationalist concerns about unionist intentions.”
Mr Adams said he was convinced “today more than ever” that the only way forward was through dialogue, reconciliation and accommodation.
He said Sinn Fein appreciated the difficulties recent allegations of IRA activities had caused for pro-Good Friday Agreement unionists.
These allegations had been used by those opposed to the peace process to subvert and undermine political change.
“Republicans must rise above that narrow agenda,” the Sinn Fein president said.
“We must recognise that unionists do have real concerns and republicans must genuinely address these concerns.
“I also believe that the IRA recognises and accepts those difficulties.”
The Sinn Fein leader pointed to the IRA’s statement of April 13, noting its willingness “to listen and learn” in a bid to understand unionist concerns.
Unionists and loyalists could live free from threats to the rights and safety and could engage with each other at community, political and other levels.
“The IRA also made clear that it poses no threat to the unionist people or to the peace process,” Mr Adams said.
“I believe that these comments are a sincere effort by the IRA to address unionist concerns. That is how it should be.
“Republicans at all levels must reach out to unionists as part of the process of national reconciliation.
“Irish republicans do not want anyone to go into the space that nationalists and republicans in the north (of Ireland) are vacating.
“We want to close that space down. We do not want anyone to be treated the way we were treated. But the truth must be faced if we are to leave the past behind.”
Mr Adams said unionists had presided over a system of “institutionalised sectarianism” for more than five decades.
Nationalists, he said, were disturbed by the refusal to face that fact and accept there must be change.
“The constant stalling of the Good Friday Agreement, particularly in the areas of equality and justice, undermines the peace process and the process of reconciliation,” he said.
Mr Adams acknowledged that loyalist and unionist communities in northern Ireland has also suffered social disadvantage and deprivation.
The Protestant working class had been “politically abandoned and in some cases left to the mercy of sectarian gangs which are now engaged in wholesale criminality.
“The people of the Shankill (Road in Belfast) and other unionist working class areas deserve a better future than this,” he said.
Sinn Fein would produce specific proposals in the coming days to ease tension in sectarian flashpoint areas of Belfast and other parts of Northern Ireland where nationalists and loyalists lived side by side.
Everyone, he argued, should do their utmost to ensure that this year’s marching season passed off peacefully.
He said Sinn Fein was wedded to the peace process and wanted to share the future with unionists on a democratic and equal basis.
"There must be safeguards and protection for the identity and culture of unionists in the context of a united Ireland," he said.
Mr Adam’s comments came as republicans planned a series of protests throughout Northern Ireland and the Republic this week to mark the indefinite postponement of Assembly elections for Stormont.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair scrapped the election on May 29 because of the failure of the IRA to make it clear that it was prepared to abandon all paramilitary activity forever.
Mr Blair felt that without that guarantee it would not be possible to restore power sharing between Sinn Fein and David Trimble’s Ulster Unionists after an election.
