February 17, 2011
By Staff Reporter
“What is critically important is that this is done right rather than quickly,” McGuinness said Thursday in New York at a press conference organized by the National Committee on American Foreign Policy. “The volunteers need to reflect on very serious matters.”
That said, McGuinness did feel that the best way forward for the IRA was to commit to exclusively peaceful and democratic means.
“Gerry has made it clear that he doesn’t expect an answer within weeks,” McGuinness, who, unlike Adams, had admitted to past IRA membership, said. “People should be given ownership of the debate. It should not be foisted upon them from on high.”
McGuinness said that an address by Adams the previous week Adams address that had immediately raised expectations of a significant IRA initiative this side of the May 5 British general election had “absolutely not” been an election speech.
Nevertheless, people in the U.S. had been “reinvigorated” by the speech, McGuinness said.
“And people on Capitol Hill have recognized the importance of the speech. But Gerry Adams will deliver the same message the day after the election is over and the election will be over in the blink of an eye.”
McGuinness said that the expected rise in the Sinn F