February 17, 2011
By Staff Reporter
He told the Irish News Friday that Sinn Fein would not be readmitted to Government Buildings in Dublin until it came prepared with a plan to disband the IRA.
“Our door will be open obviously to further discussions, but it has to be on the basis that there has to be a clear and demonstrable move toward full decommissioning and an end to paramilitarism and criminality,” Ahern said. “We can’t help in any way. It is up to them.”
This is not the first time that Ahern has engaged in straight talking about Sinn Fein. Last September, following the collapse of the Leeds Castle talks initiative, he said he looked forward to the day that republicans would be in government both North and South.
The comments provoked some frantic backtracking. Government sources briefed against the minister, suggesting he had spoken out of turn — putting some much-needed distance between Ahern and the taoiseach.
However, it emerged days later that Sinn Fein had requested that the Irish government make just such a gesture during negotiations. It is thought the republican leadership had sought an overture from Fianna Fail in order to help sell IRA disbandment to its grassroots. The prospect of coalition government would help soothe any anger in republican heartlands.
Ahern had been given the job of flying the kite. He no doubt felt a little peeved at the subsequent denials.
Friday’s remarks, however, came with the taoiseach’s full backing.
Any remaining ambiguity about what was said between Gerry Adams and Bertie Ahern in their last meeting, in January, has been cleared up. When Justice Minister Michael McDowell said the government had told Sinn Fein to go away and “reflect,” doubts remained about just what this meant.
Though the meeting was undoubtedly fraught — coming only weeks after the Northern Bank heist — it remained unclear how the two sides would proceed. Would the government persist with these high-profile pow-wows despite the fallout from the Northern Bank raid late last year?
The ball, as far as the Irish government is concerned, is now firmly in the republicans’ court.
The continued fallout from the murder of Robert McCartney on Jan. 30 has strengthened Bertie Ahern’s hand in recent weeks. At the time of the killing it was thought that Sinn Fein and the IRA would largely escape recrimination.
The Police Service of Northern Ireland moved quickly to rule out the possibility that the murder had been sanctioned by the IRA, though did not rule out the involvement of IRA members. However, as details about an IRA coverup emerged into the public domain, the incident took on a different momentum.
The McCartney family, who had previously supported Sinn Fein, accused the republican movement of looking to protect the perpetrators. They called on senior politicians to do all in their power to bring the culprits to book.
The expulsion at the weekend of three IRA men who were involved in the murder has done little to calm anger. Vigils have been held in the Short Strand enclave at which senior Sinn Fein politicians such as Alex Maskey have been barracked by angry family members and their supporters.
Sinn Fein has found itself outmaneuvered on a number of fronts.
Amid the recriminations surrounding the bank robbery, Sinn Fein could point to a lack of evidence or arrests. Republican supporters, as evidenced in a recent Irish Times opinion poll, largely believed the IRA’s denial of involvement.
The McCartney murder, however, has much more resonance with ordinary nationalists. Joe Reilly, Sinn Fein’s candidate in the Meath by-election, has conceded that while his constituents largely laugh off the bank job, many of them are angered by the murder. It is a much more emotive issue and has the potential to undermine republican support.
The governments have not sought to exploit the killing in the same way they have the bank robbery and the discovery of an IRA money-laundering operation in the Republic. There is no such need — ordinary nationalists and republicans, both North and South, are already outraged by it.
An interesting barometer of nationalist opinion in the North in the last few days has been the new Andersonstown News Group-published Daily Ireland newspaper. The paper, even before its publication, had to endure claims that it would slavishly follow the republican line. Justice Minister Michael McDowell accused the paper of being a “Provo Front” two weeks ago — a claim over which he is being sued.
In an editorial on Monday entitled “IRA just can’t wash its hands,” the paper said the controversy surrounding republican reaction to the murder was not created by those who sought to undermine Sinn Fein.
“Republicans are aggrieved and many are privately of the opinion that the McCartney affair is just the latest in [a] tirade of opprobrium that has been directed at them in recent months. Nothing could be further from the truth,” said the paper leader.
“The McCartney family does not want to be on the television and in the newspapers asking republicans to do the right thing — they have been forced into the limelight because of events that were not of their doing.”
The editorial concluded: “This is an ongoing process in which the IRA is a significant factor. That process will not end until someone is in the dock.”
Meanwhile, Gerry Adams’s response, unprecedented though it may be, has not let republicans off the hook.
Adams has said that had he been involved in the events himself, he would have made himself available to the courts. In previous statements, Sinn Fein has said that anyone with information should go to whomever they feel appropriate. Significantly, the party has not ruled out that people go to the police.
However, amid reports that the chief suspect has fled the North and of a failure of witnesses to come forward in any significant number, questions still hang over the republican movement. The pressure on Sinn Fein shows no signs of letting up in the short term.
Republicans might just now come around to the notion that it is indeed time for the IRA to go away. If Dermot Ahern is to be believed, then either that happens or republicans will have to remain out in the cold.