February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
By Andrew Bushe
DUBLIN — Two-thirds of people in the Republic believe the IRA was wrong to break off talks on disarmament and almost the same number think it was wrong to suspend the fledgling Northern Ireland institutions, according to a new poll.
However, people remain optimistic about the stalled peace process with 68 percent believing it can still succeed, 20 percent think it is set to fail and 12 percent don’t know, according to the Sunday Independent/IMS poll.
People appear confused about who was to blame for the decision of Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Mandelson to suspend the multi-party administration on 11 February.
The IRA is blamed by 28 percent and Unionists by 27 percent.
After the suspension, the IRA withdrew their intermediary with the disarmament body and the poll shows 64 percent believe it was wrong, 22 percent say they were right and 14 percent had no opinion.
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The decision to suspend the administration was wrong according to 61 percent, while 25 percent agreed and 14 percent had no opinion.
The pollsters interviewed a representative sample of 1,103 adults at 100 locations last Thursday.