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Ahern meets UDA group

February 16, 2011

By Staff Reporter

On Monday, Ahern met five representatives of the UDA at Government Buildings in Dublin, and on Thursday he’s to meet a DUP delegation at the Irish embassy in London.
After his meeting with the UDA-affiliated Ulster Political Research Group, Ahern said he hoped to build a “constructive relationship” with the loyalist community. He stressed that “progress could only be made when there is peace on the streets.”
A spokesman for the UPRG, Newtownabbey councilor Tommy Kirkham, said that the meeting was “historic” and “amicable.” He also said that contact would be maintained.
Ahern said the meeting was the first in a series of discussions with loyalist representatives. “I know that all too often loyalist people feel their voices are not heard, and their concerns are ignored,” he said.
“We want to be constructive, and I have assured them that the [Irish] government is ready to assist in any way we can to advance a positive agenda. The use of violence, the threat of violence and involvement in criminality are contrary to the interests of everybody, including the loyalist community itself.” Kirkham, meanwhile, told journalists: “For some months now there seems to have been a pandering to the IRA by the secretary of state and by the British prime minister. It is only right that we bring those concerns to the taoiseach.” The UPRG traveled to the meeting in Dublin under Garda escort. The delegation comprised Kirkham, Frankie Gallagher, Frank McCoubrey, loyalist prisoner representative Stanley Fletcher, and Jackie McDonald, the UDA brigadier in South Belfast.
The talks focused on a loyalist desire to have an input in the upcoming review of the Good Friday agreement and a dispute concerning loyalist prisoners in Maghaberry Prison in County Antrim.
“We asked for support for a review of the prison situation and that someone should instigate a Prisons Ombudsman for Northern Ireland to try to alleviate some of the problems facing the prisoners,” Kirkham said.
The UDA declared a 12-month ceasefire a year ago, but the British government has not recognized it and observers generally agree that the group has repeatedly broken its pledge to non-violence, including acts of murder, sectarian attack and intimidation.
On Thursday, Ahern goes into the first-ever meeting on a bilateral basis between a DUP leader and an Irish premier with few illusions about Paisley’s attitude toward him.
As Ahern took over the European Union presidency, Paisley said he wished him “fair wind” only insofar as the new role would keep him busy and, “we will not have to tolerate his presence at meetings in Northern Ireland.”
He added: “We will be able to get on with our business, as so overwhelmingly decided by the electorate, and he can get on with his”, said Paisley, reminding his listeners that Ahern “would not tolerate having any members of the IRA/Sinn Fein in the Dublin government, but insists that we tolerate them.”
Taking up the theme, Paisley’s deputy, Peter Robinson, said: “We’ll be interested to hear if he considers that Sinn Fein/IRA is fit to serve in a democratic institution here, or anywhere else.
“The recent remarks by the Irish justice minister appear to reinforce Mr. Ahern’s position, at the last Irish election, that they consider Sinn Fein/IRA unfit to serve in government,” Robinson said.
Kirkham of the UPRG delegation said: “Many commentators have said the UDA’s ceasefire is broken, but none seem to be saying that the IRA’s is over.
“There have been so-called punishment shootings carried out by the IRA in Belfast, Jonesboro, Londonderry, and many other places, but we’re not hearing it said that their ceasefire is over.”

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