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Fury as police cut bank heist team
Claim politics playing a part
By Jonathan McCambridge
08 August 2005
There was fury today after it emerged that the police team hunting the IRA Northern Bank robbery gang has been downsized.
The PSNI insisted today that cuts to the investigation team were not linked to the IRA cessation of activities and that their determination to catch the robbers remains undimmed.
However, unionists have expressed outrage and have said they will be raising their concerns with police chiefs that the cuts are part of a political deal.
In December an IRA robbery gang robbed the Northern Bank headquarters in Belfast of £26.5m after they took the families of two employees hostage - a crime which shocked Northern Ireland.
No-one has ever been charged over the crime, which caused immense embarrassment to the PSNI.
Originally a team of 45 detectives were working on the investigation which included carrying out hundreds of interviews and viewing thousands of hours of CCTV footage.
However, it has now emerged that the size of the team has been downgraded.
Police would not comment officially on the number of detectives who have been taken off the case, but some sources have indicated that it could be as many as half.
A police spokeswoman said: "The resources available to the Northern Bank inquiry team have not been reduced as a result of the Provisional IRA statement recently."
However, it is understood that there is anger among some senior officers who feel their ability to catch the robbery gang has been compromised by the cuts.
Belfast District Policing Partnership member Jim Rodgers said: "Police officers have told me the number investigating the robbery have been slashed.
"Unionists will see this as another major concession to republicans. There is much consternation among detectives that there has been political interference.
"It is beyond belief that the authorities are not working round the clock to apprehend and bring to justice the individuals responsible for this crime.
"I will be seeking urgent meetings with police chiefs to ascertain if any political deal has been done with republicans."
In a recent interview with the Belfast Telegraph, the senior investigating officer Detective Superintendent Phil Aiken said the investigation remained a priority.
He said: "This remains a priority for the organisation, it was a significant crime which attacks the very core of public confidence."
No notes from the Northern Bank robbery have ever been recovered, apart from £50,000 left at a sports club used by police.
But police are convinced that £3m of used sterling notes seized by the Garda in Cork in February are from the Northern Bank raid.
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August 8, 2005
Nationalist concern at terror campaign
A sectarian terror campaign against Catholics in a Northern Ireland village will claim lives if it continues, it was claimed tonight.
By:Press Association
Nationalist politicians sounded the warning after two devices exploded outside homes in Cloughmills, Co Antrim, while a third hoax device was left on a windowsill.
Sectarian tensions have heightened across north Antrim during the summer, with Catholic churches and pubs coming under attack.
A republican internment commemoration parade due to be held tomorrow night in Ballymena, a strongly Protestant town, has fuelled further resentment.
Sean Farren, a nationalist SDLP Assembly member for North Antrim, said he was disturbed by the incidents.
He claimed: "Loyalist gangs are flexing their muscles all over North Antrim, most recently in a series of attacks on Catholic churches, but the use of pipe bombs may mean they are moving on to a new level of activity.
"Pipe bombs are made for one purpose only - to do murder."
The first device exploded in Cypress Park early today, showering a living room with glass.
Less than an hour before the attack, another bomb had detonated under a van parked in nearby Rosemount.
No-one was injured, but detectives blamed terrorists waging a sectarian campaign against Catholics for the violence.
The third device was left on the windowsill of a house in Cypress Park shortly after 1pm.
Police said it was similar in appearance to the other two but did not contain any explosives.
All three are believed to be connected.
Inspector Nick McCaw said: "We are treating the incident at the house as attempted murder.
"Anybody would have been badly injured, if not killed, if they had been in that room when the device exploded."
Sinn Fein claimed six families had also been ordered out of Ahoghill, another nearby village.
One of the party`s councillors, Daithi McKay, said both families targeted by the pipe bombers today were attacked before.
"They are adamant that they are not going anywhere," he said.
"They have lived there all their lives and are not going to be intimidated or forced out of the village by a group of thugs."
As police warned people in Cloughmills to be alert for any undiscovered pipe bombs, Mr McKay hit out at the paramilitaries.
"I would appeal to nationalists and republicans in north Antrim to remain highly vigilant in the time ahead as it seems that unionist paramilitary gangs are intent on escalating their campaign," he added.
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Sunday Business Post
Irish America played pivotal Northern role
Sunday, August 07, 2005 -
Niall O'Dowd
Henry Kissinger, former New York governor Hugh Carey, former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, Jim Dwyer from The New York Times and a slew of leading politicians and businessmen were on hand to hear Martin McGuiness speak in New York recently in the wake of the IRA statement.
The venue was Mutual of America, the company headed up by two Irish Americans who have made a huge difference to the fate of the Irish peace process. Chairman and chief executive Tom Moran and former chairman William
Flynn were both on hand to witness the historic moment when Martin McGuinness made it official.
The IRA were going out of business and major breakthroughs on issues of concern to nationalists were at long last to be addressed.
The stars of the day however, were not the Sinn Féin chief negotiator and his colleagues, rather it was the two
Irish American leaders there who had made the gathering possible. Indeed, they had proven time and again that despite all the odds and the naysayers, peace in Ireland was a prize that America should pursue, not despair about.
Such a moment could only have been dreamed off just a few years previously.
Indeed, Henry Kissinger remarked that he spent no time at all on the Irish issue when he was in power because it was unsolvable. Governor Hugh Carey remembered times were so desperate that some politicians seriously suggested that Ireland become the 51st state of the US as away out of the problems. Others recalled the despair they felt at the height of the violence
and wondered if anything could save the North.
Despair however, was not a word in the Flynn/Moran lexicon. All the speakers, McGuinness included, were lavish in their praise of the two men who stayed faithful to the issue of bringing peace
to Northern Ireland, even during the darkest days of the Troubles.
Flynn was a key member of the Irish American peace delegation which from 1991 onward became regular visitors to Northern Ireland and engaged Irish
Republicanism when other Americans of stature feared to tread up the
Falls Road. More importantly, he was a vital part of the group which created the first bridge to the Clinton campaign and later the WhiteHouse, the single event that propelled the Irish peace process to the top of theAmerican agenda.
Moran came later to the issue, but once involved, was a powerhouse. He created a meeting ground for every figure, regardless of their political leanings, who came from Northern
Ireland. Though the full details will never be revealed, there was more honesty and straight talk, and indeed, progress at
the Mutual of American meetings with prime ministers, ministers, party leaders and paramilitaries than in any other political forum. It was a rare and unexpected gift from Irish
America which had always been portrayed as a deep shade of green when it came to Ireland and incapable of
nuance. Moran and Flynn instead developed a non-partisan approach, which gave every side
their opportunity to speak and be heard. There were no qualifiers or restrictions on
speakers, merely a hope that they were open to dialogue from the other
side. Both men dug deep financially to make sure that all speakers had equal access. It was the kind of commitment rarely seen but deeply appreciated on all sides. A more unseen presence, though just as
important, was the role of Irish American billionaire philanthropist Chuck
Feeney. Feeney too, was a member of the original delegation which began talks with all
the Northern Irish parties back in 1991 and subsequently persuaded the
Clinton White House to become involved.
Feeney also took the considerable risk for a man of his stature of coming to the aid of Sinn Féin, shortly after the 1994 IRA
ceasefire, when the party desperately needed funding to establish its political
agenda. There was no other businessman on earth who would take the risk. Feeney ponied
up more than a million dollars to ensure that the party was properly represented in America. His gesture was widely and deliberately misrepresented
in much of the media as some sort of aid for the IRA. What he was doing was helping ensure that politics, not violence took precedence in the republican movement. He succeeded in helping Sinn Féin establish
their American presence, to build on their links to successive White
House administrations and to fully staff an office in Washington for a time. He knew, as did other members of
the US delegation, that unless politics was seen to work, the usually dominant armed wing of
republicanism would re-establish itself quickly. Former Congressman Bruce
Morrison, who did muchwork to help the Irish “undocumented'‘ was also another
man whose work on the process was invaluable.
At a time when Sinn Féin was widely shunned his presence on the delegation of Irish American
leaders was seen as very significant because of his major stature both in Ireland and theUS. One of the sharpest political minds in the
business, Morrison grasped the intricacies of the Northern Irish issue in away few American politicians ever have. His sure-footedness ensured that the
delegation was always taken seriously by republicans as much as anyone. A final piece in the early American role in the peace process was the involvement of labour leader Joe Jameson, representing the powerful AFL/
CIO leadership on the delegation. This was of particular importance to Sinn Féin
who wanted to build ties to organised labour in America. Overall, Irish
America was in a celebratory mood last week, but there would be no let up.
“We have seen the goal line before, only to lose the ball at the last second,” said one leader. Yet there was clear pride that Irish Americans saw the potential in the Irish peace process years before many others and acted on their hunch.
“There is no doubt, whatsoever, that without Irish America this could never have succeeded,”
Martin McGuinness told the NewYork gathering.
Niall O'Dowd is publisher of the Irish Voice newspaper.
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Irish News
August 6, 2005
PIRA has failed Wolfe Tone republican test
Patrick Murphy
Does the Provisional IRA's decision to abandon violence mean that it is no longer republican?
The question of what exactly defines republicanism is of more than academic importance.
In future elections non-unionist voters will choose between two identical political parties, one labelled nationalist and the other republican.
So is republicanism a political philosophy or just a military strategy for nationalists?
History shows a continuous – if sometimes erratic – thread of distinctive political thought from the time of Wolfe Tone (1763-98) which might broadly be labelled republican.
It contains three core elements – separatism from Britain, non-sectarianism and, in modern language, socialism.
It is difficult to avoid the conclusion that the PIRA failed on all three.
Separatism from Britain was abandoned in the Good Friday Agreement.
Sinn Féin is not quite non-sectarian in that it has significantly alienated Protestants.
Gerry Adams has befriended US businessman Bill Flynn somewhat more than he has reached out to working class Protestants.
Which of those might Tone have deemed men of no property?
Of course, Tone may have got it wrong – men of no property may not be worthy of political investment and non-sectarianism may not be all that feasible in our society.
But it is hard to deviate from Tone's teachings and, at the same time, claim to be his followers.
So, if the PIRA are not quite disciples of Tone, where are their historical origins?
Their philosophy might be more accurately traced to Daniel O'Connell (1775-1847) who achieved Catholic Emancipation in 1829.
Among other things, this allowed Catholics to sit in parliament without taking the oath of supremacy to the crown – which has a familiar echo in the Stormont Assembly.
He also failed to break the political union with Britain – as did Sinn Féin.
Founded in reaction to the 1969 sectarian pogroms in Belfast, the PIRA were not so much republicans as Catholics with guns.
In the light of circumstances at the time, this was understandable.
Bombay Street was not exactly the place for a prolonged debate on the true meaning of republicanism.
But when that debate did take place later in the cages of Long Kesh the Provos still failed to identify their enemy.
Thus they still think that people like the DUP's Arlene Foster are the enemy, simply because she thinks she is British.
In failing to differentiate between the British government and the Protestant people in Ireland, they accepted the British view that violence here was simply a sectarian conflict.
British support for loyalist paramilitaries reinforced the point.
Under a growing northern influence the PIRA leadership drifted into the sectarian consequences of their long war.
The original demand of 'Brits out' was replaced with a demand for religious equality within – a campaign first begun by Daniel O'Connell.
So the PIRA settled not for beating the British but for beating the Protestants who have been reduced to political confusion and paramilitary incest.
The point was not missed by Britain, which is now backing Catholics to implement its policy here.
Just as the London government funded Maynooth from 1795 to 1870 to win over Irish Catholic opinion, Tony Blair walks the corridors of Downing Street with Sinn Féin leaders for the same purpose.
Unionists see the disbandment of the RIR as the British government carrying out Sinn Féin policy. But they miss the point.
Sinn Féin is now carrying out British policy here because Tony Blair is relying on it, rather than unionism, to administer British rule in Ireland.
Thus Sinn Féin has replaced the old unionist party as the largest, richest and best organised political party in Stormont.
Britain has no qualms about changing sides here. Sinn Féin offers political stability, a
clamp-down on armed republican groups, the pursuit of new Labour's social and economic policies and a place in history for the retiring Tony Blair.
London will now happily allow Catholics to set the political agenda in pursuit of British interests here.
For example, the refusal to accept some Protestants into the PSNI may have a political rationale but it is anti-Protestant discrimination in that it denies employment on the basis of religious belief.
This smacks more of O'Connell than Tone.
Without adherence to Tone's republican philosophy, the PIRA's surrender of guns was easy because it meant the abandonment of a technique rather than a principle.
It therefore seems reasonable to conclude that the PIRA are not republicans – not because they gave away their guns but because of the reason they took them up in the first place.
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Provos long journey to accepting alien state
August 05, 2005
(by Suzanne Breen, Sunday Tribune)
Even in the darkest days of the Troubles, Northern Ireland was no more politically divided than it is now. Loyalist East Belfast would never dance on the streets for any IRA declaration, but there isn't even acknowledgment the Provos might be changing.
"Thon boy in the white shirt who read out the IRA statement should be locked up," says Adele Malcolm who is shopping on the Newtownards Road. Her friend, Elizabeth McLean, agrees: "Would Tony Blair let al-Qaeda sit in their back gardens recording statements for DVD?
"They're arresting the terrorists in London, yet they want to put them in government here." But in West Belfast, people believe the IRA statement is, if anything, too magnanimous.
"The IRA is bending over backwards and unionists are still complaining," says Hugh Maguire who is shopping in the Kennedy Centre. "They're not the only ones who had loved ones killed. There isn't a street in West Belfast where a family didn't lose somebody."
Another nationalist, Tom, reckons "if Jesus came down from the cross, Paisley wouldn't just want to see the wounds, he'd demand to see the nails as well".
All shades of unionist opinion, from the most liberal to the most right-wing, distrust IRA intentions. Ulster Unionist leader, Sir Reg Empey, insists the Provos have it all to prove.
David Ervine, leader of the Progressive Unionist Party, the UVF's political wing, says: "P O'Neill has a seriously credibility problem. He was trusted more before 1994.
"Then, if he had said 'the moon is pink with polka dots', Prods would have gone out to take a look. Lying so many times since the ceasefire means that if he now says 'the sky is blue', nobody will believe him."
Sectarianism plays a role in unionists' response, but the scepticism is also rooted in fact. The lengthy list of lies includes Colombia, Jean McConville, the Robert McCartney murder, and the Florida gun-running.
There is also the widely forgotten killing of postal worker Frank Kerr. In November 1994, two months after the ceasefire, he was shot dead during a robbery in Newry. Gerry Adams expressed outrage "at the way in which the RUC has sought to blame republicans for this killing". The IRA later admitted responsibility.
In the broad nationalist community, such incidents haven't made any lasting impact. There is immense trust in Sinn Féin leaders. Adams' invitation to Paisley to a face-to-face meeting is regarded as generous on the Falls.
"If Adams thinks I'm meeting him for tea, he's out of his mind," says the DUP leader. "And if Tony Blair or anybody else believes I can be bullied into any deal, they're equally misguided.
"George Bush agrees with me 100% that it's action needed from the IRA, not words. He phoned me on Thursday for a chat. Ten years ago, who would have predicted a US President would be ringing Ian Paisley?
"Trimble is gone. The days of pushover unionism are gone. Unionism is stronger than ever." Paisley has a point and it potentially spells trouble for the Provos.
Ideologically, Sinn Féin made few gains during the first post-ceasefire decade, but the impression of victory was created by the image of a weak, divided unionism.
The DUP's electoral dominance, and its obvious (even to opponents) political skills, means unionism can no longer be dismissed as dying.
Politically, it's the republican movement which has been forced to retreat. In February, the IRA made hardline statements and withdrew its decommissioning offer. Gerry Adams warned the peace process "could be as transient as Mr Blair's time in Downing Street".
Neither the British government nor the unionists placed anything new on the table to secure this volte-face and it wasn't down to a moral awakening. Sinn Féin has of course dressed it up as a victory. Gerry Kelly spoke of the IRA "liberating" the peace process. But the reality is that applying pressure to Sinn Féin works.
The governments hope that if the International Monitoring Commission gives the Provos a clean bill of health in its second report in January, the DUP will talk to Sinn Féin, and a deal can be reached and fresh Assembly elections held as early as Spring.
DUP sources say that time-table is wildly optimistic even if the IRA became the nationalist equivalent of the British Legion. And judging by the Provos' own statement, that's unlikely.
Retaining an Army Council, a GHQ staff, a Northern Command and various brigades mean it plans to engage in more than ceremonies.
The musical chairs on the Army Council suggests the IRA knows it will be involved in activities potentially embarrassing to Sinn Féin. Regardless of what is claimed, there is no clear green water between Sinn Féin leaders and the Army Council.
Adams, Martin McGuinness and Martin Ferris have been replaced by three trusted West Belfast lieutenants. Since the IRA statement, there has been much talk of the IRA's role in protecting nationalists from loyalist attack. But that has become a myth in recent years.
Since 1994, loyalists have murdered Catholics, petrol bombed their homes, and stabbed or beaten them to within inches of their lives. The Provos only once broke their ceasefire to target a loyalist – UDA member Robert Dougan in February 1998.
The dozen or so other occasions the IRA has breached its ceasefire was to kill members of its own community – alleged drug-dealers and informers, dissidents, and those who have personally clashed with IRA figures. Such statistics prove the IRA's overwhelming concern is to be an agent of social control within its own community.
There is uncertainty in nationalist areas over whether the IMC's gaze will force the IRA into inactivity. "The IRA won't throw its weight about as much as before," predicts one community activist.
"If somebody attacked Sinn Féin offices or homes, they'll get a bullet in the head. Dissidents will have to watch out for a glass to the neck or a knifing. But the IRA won't get away with things on the same scale as before."
Some observers fear that a flood of defections to dissidents following last week's statement – plus 'Big Brother' perhaps no longer being able to 'police' them effectively – could increase the dissident threat.
But there is no major split in the IRA at a grassroots or leadership level. The hardliners generally all left in late 1997 to form the Real IRA. In grassroots' republican eyes, neither RIRA nor the Continuity IRA are 'successful' because they haven't killed police or British soldiers.
Since 1994, the vast majority of disillusioned IRA members have simply retired; it will be no different this time. According to informed sources, the IRA's three previous decommissioning acts have involved 6% of its arsenal.
The organisation is expected to decommission most of its 1980s Libyan weapons. One republican believed it would retain the clean handguns it has acquired in recent years for any potential use against rival republicans or in robberies.
Decommissioning its arsenal is one thing; nobody expects the IRA to decommission its business empire. Involvement in crime, although more subtly than before, will continue.
Security and nationalist sources claim the Provos now sub-contract 'jobs' to criminal gangs. "It's like McDonalds – they award the franchise," says an official source.
"The IRA is providing the intelligence – and maybe even the weapons – to others to carry out robberies," says a nationalist source. "They get a cut but don't risk their members being caught.
"They now delegate the daily management of diesel and cigarette smuggling. Nobody will catch the local OC with a load of dodgy gear in his boot."
Much of the IRA's business is legitimate with apparently respectable business-men fronting hundreds of enterprises including shops, apartment and office blocks, restaurants, hotels and pubs.
Key senior individuals may have personally profited but the bulk of ordinary activists haven't. Most funds are returned to the organisation. It would be naïve to expect that all this ended at 4 p.m. last Thursday.
It's in the weeks and months ahead, long after the media has gone, that the North will be able to see if the IRA's actions have lived up to its words. Only then, can we judge whether history has been made.
The one area where the IRA will undoubtedly clean up its act is in its relationship with revolutionary groups abroad. In his response to the Provo statement, President Bush insisted the IRA must "no longer have contact with any foreign paramilitary and terrorist organizations".
The desire to mollify the administration – despite the republican base's strong opposition to US activities in Iraq – was highlighted by Martin McGuinness's trip last week to brief leading American politicians.
In relation to policing, Sinn Féin wants a pledge to devolve policing and justice powers to Stormont before it holds a special ard fheis to secure approval for endorsing the police.
The leadership's motion is guaranteed success. It will be the final step in the Provos' long journey, says David Ervine: "Policing is a nightmare for them.
"Martin McGuinness and Bairbre de Brun sitting as British ministers at Stormont is one thing, but the peeler in the street is much more in-yer-face for republicans. Accepting him means totally accepting the 'alien' state."
August 5, 2005
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DERRY NEWS - Thursday 4th August
Real IRA in Derry is preparing to launch a new armed campaign
The Real IRA in Derry is preparing to launch a new armed campaign against the PSNI and the British Army.
The organisation in the north west is also currently engaged in a restructuring process aimed at weeding out criminal elements and suspected informers.
Informed sources say the Real IRA is determined to " put their house in order " before launching new attacks and that recent 'punishment' shootings in the Strabane area where linked to this 'internal discipline'.
They have also warned that it is only a question of "when - not if" a renewed campaign will be mounted.
The move follows last weeks historic announcement from the IRA that it is ending its armed campaign.
However, a key figure within the Real IRA spoke to the Derry News this week and pledged that they will not be following suit.
"We have seen this all before with those who sold out their republican principles, albeit the provos have reached a new low with their public and humiliating surrender of weapons. Fortunately for Republicanism, the provo leadership did not begin resistance to British occupation in Ireland nor can they end it. It is up to genuine republicans to regroup and reorganize the Republican Movement."
A source close to the group this week told the Derry News that it was now up to "genuine republicans" to reorganize the republican movement "faithful to the teachings of Tone, Emmet, Rossa, Pearse, Connolly and Sands."
The source also hit out at the leadership of the mainstream republicanism who he claimed had betrayed their own struggle and supporters.
"The provos were once a noble revolutionary organization that alot of people would have been proud to be part of," he said.
"Unfortunately a devious leadership, identified and moulded at an early stage by the British as 'people they could do business with' have led them to this inevitable point of surrender.
"The republican community have ralied behind this organisation in the genuine belief that they were struggling for the Republic. Mothers and fathers have buried theirs sons and daughters. Young men and women have spent the best years of their lives in prisons in the belief that it was for Irish freedom.
"Unbeknownst to them, Irish freedom had been taken off the agenda by a power-hungry and self-serving leadership. While endless sacrifices were made by the grassroots, this clinque had already conceded defeat on the main objectives of republicanism. Without consulation or debate they accepted the status quo even when volunteers were killing and being killed for their beliefs."
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The Times
August 01, 2005
The IRA disarms, Sinn Fein sweeps the polls. And Gerry Adams is a loser
Tim Hames
ON FRIDAY NIGHT Dolores McNamara, a mother of six from Limerick, discovered that she had won £77 million in the European lottery. About 30 hours earlier two Irishmen from further north, Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness, had reason to believe that in another context — that of the the peace process — they would be hitting a political jackpot.
The Euromillions draw came after nine rollovers. Northern Ireland has had a similar experience since the Good Friday Agreement, culminating in the dramatic announcement last Thursday that the IRA would cease all military activity. Does this mean that the lives of Mr Adams and Mr McGuinness are now likely to be transformed, as no doubt they hope?
Unfortunately a study of the past form of lottery winners is not encouraging. And while I wish the McNamara family nothing but good fortune, I suspect the two republican leaders might not fare so well.
At almost any other time the IRA statement would have dominated the news agenda for weeks. In the present atmosphere, however, it has been treated almost as an historical afterthought, not a development with profound significance. In so far as its implications have been considered at all, it has been along the lines of “Do they (the IRA) mean it?” The real question should be: “What does it mean?” The “Do they mean it?” question is straightforward.
This is not, unlike other IRA offers to “place beyond arms beyond use”, a declaration that is reversible. After this the IRA can hardly at some future time issue a video of its public face, Sean Walsh, instructing volunteers to “retrieve guns” that have been dumped or engage in activities that would be “incompatible with peaceful, democratic methods”. Nor would there be any point in the IRA making this move if the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning and the Independent Monitoring Commission could not assign it a clean bill of health afterwards. To the irritation of some Unionists, perhaps, the IRA will almost certainly deliver on its word.
It will do so because the relationship between Sinn Fein and the IRA has changed fundamentally. Sinn Fein was once the political wing of the IRA; in the course of the past decade, the IRA has become the paramilitary branch of Sinn Fein. A paramilitary organisation can choose whether or not it has a political manifestation. A political organisation in a Western democracy cannot, ultimately, choose whether or not it has a paramilitary offshoot. Much of the painful rollercoaster that Northern Ireland has endured since the Good Friday Agreement has been about republicans testing how much of the IRA they could keep intact while still persuading London, Dublin, Washington and a portion of Unionists to do business with them. That process has now been settled on terms that a large enough number of people can accept.
“What does it mean?” is far more challenging. It will take time to be confident of an answer. Sinn Fein is now destined to be as much a paradoxical as a political organisation, combining electoral success with ideological failure.
The bonus at the ballot box for Sinn Fein is obvious. It outperformed the SDLP in the general election despite the damning publicity that came from the murder of Robert McCartney and the Northern Bank robbery.
It will do even better once it can campaign without the stigma of the balaclava.
It is the only authentic working- class nationalist political party in the Province (not least because the IRA kneecapped — or worse — anyone attempting to build up an alternative) and it will romp home once IRA disarmament renders it fully “respectable”. Sinn Fein will decommission the SDLP even faster than General John de Chastelain and his team can dismantle the IRA’s arsenal. That success will be duplicated south of the border as well. It would be astonishing now if Sinn Fein did not win one vote in ten at the next election in the Republic — a result that would leave it knocking at the door of office.
That voting strength will leave Sinn Fein, politically, in a win-win situation. If the Democratic Unionist Party agrees to enter government with it in the north, then men such as Mr McGuinness and his like will be ministers again with departmental fiefdoms. If, on the other hand, the Unionists will not share power even after the IRA has wound down, there will be a Secretary of State in Ulster in effect implementing Sinn Fein’s positions on “equality and justice” and “demilitarisation”.
But therein in lies the rub. The more effective that Sinn Fein is as an electoral force, the more impotent it becomes as an ideological one.
Every deal it strikes with Tony Blair legitimises the British presence in Northern Ireland. Every concession it secures that advances the economic and social standing of ordinary Roman Catholics in Ulster weakens the argument that it is only through Irish unification that those material interests can be realised. With every step that Ulster takes towards becoming a “normal society”, so what Sinn Fein officially regards as an “interim settlement” becomes more deeply entrenched.
This is the outlook for republicanism. A larger and larger number of nationalists in both the North and the South will vote for Sinn Fein — but more because they regard it as the best vehicle for representing them in a divided Ireland than out of support for a united one. Nor will it make much difference if Catholics finally outbreed Protestants in Ulster. Even at the height of the Troubles a substantial percentage of nationalists preferred the status quo to the upheaval of unification.
That sentiment will only swell if politics is perceived to be working in Northern Ireland. One winner of the national lottery in Britain recently mused sadly that: “I have never been richer and I have never been poorer.” That is also the irony that awaits Mr Adams and Mr McGuinness.
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The Blanket - A Journal of Protest & Dissent
An Open Letter to Gerry Adams
Dolours Price • 31 July 2005
So, Gerry, it has come to this. Not a lot when all is considered, nothing that didn't already exist in some form since the creation of the State. Constitutional Nationalism has been a part of Six County politics since forever. Joe Devlin, Eddie McAteer and then the S.D.L.P, now Sinn Fein. Not a lot to see so many people dead for, hardly a resounding victory, not even a resounding compromise. I'd say you were fairly whipped.
I knew you way back when. I thought I knew you. How far you moved from the Republican position over the years has astounded me. How were you lured down the path you conned others to tread behind you? Was it the interfering cleric or the flattery of the Americans; did it go to your head, did the ego soar and at last did you see the possibility that you might be somebody?
I ask none of this in a malicious way but as an observer of the human condition and the individual.
Could it be that least attractive of motives, self promotion. I have watched you carry far more than your share of coffins, I watched as you embarrassingly elbowed people aside inorder that you might put a shoulder under Sean Mac Stiofain (my Chief of Staff). This was a man whose ruination within the Republican Movement you were party to. I call that hypocracy. Was it just a photo opportunity?
Then there is the comfortable lifestyle. You didn't do it for a couple of houses and a good suit on your back surely? I'm am all curiosity.
The things we have in common from our past, long past, are often in my mind. Now that it is all over bar the final destruction of the weapons I look forward to the freedom to lay bare my experiences unfettered by codes now redundant.
This is the only freedom left to me and those Republicans of like mind.
I should wish you well, Gerry, but my heart is too heavy to feel it and I cannot be a hypocrite. I have no regrets. My trust was abused.
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