By Jack Holland
The Northern Ireland secretary of state, Dr. John Reid, has called on Sinn Fein’s four Westminster MPs to take their seats in the British parliament. The call came after the British government announced that the four MPs — Gerry Adams, Martin McGuinness, Pat Doherty and Michele Gildernew — would be allocated, and have accepted, office space and expenses amounting to over $500,000 per annum.
In an interview on Saturday, Reid hailed the decision as “a move in the right direction.”
“It is bringing people further into the political process,” he said.
He said it may one day lead to the republican party’s MPs taking up their seats in the House of Commons.
Traditionally, Sinn Fein has opposed its members taking seats in the British parliament, but it has long campaigned to have access to the same office facilities as enjoyed by MPs of other parties.
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The Sinn Fein decision was also welcomed by the Social Democratic and Labor Party.
However, as expected, Conservative MPs joined with Ulster Unionist and Democratic Unionist MPs in an attempt oppose the government’s decision to allow Sinn Fein’s MPs the same benefits enjoyed by other MPs, even though they will not swear an oath of allegiance to the queen and take their seats.
The decision has also led to attacks on Sinn Fein from more traditional republicans, who claim that it is one more step down the road to becoming a fully constitutional party like Fianna Fail or the SDLP. Spokesmen for the Republican Sinn Fein party accused Sinn Fein of getting ready to move to take their seats in Westminster, as they did in the Dail (Irish parliament) after a controversial debate in 1986. That decision led to a split in Provisional Sinn Fein and the setting up of Republican Sinn Fein.
Meanwhile, it was revealed that one of eight men arrested in a Dec. 17 Garda swoop on a house in Limerick is a vice president of Republican Sinn Fein. Des Long, 61, was arrested along with Joseph “Tiny” Lynch, 60, Patrick O`Shea, 53, Robert McNamara, 57, Christopher Dunne, 27, Gerard “Ger” Brommel, 42, Patrick “Paddy’ Kennelly, 57, and Matt Conway, 66. Six of the eight were denied bail. They are accused of organizing for the illegal Continuity IRA, the armed wing of Republican Sinn Fein.
The arrests came a day after CIRA claimed responsibility for a bomb attack on customs offices in Enniskillen, Co. Fermanagh. The device was described as “crude” and caused no injuries.
Other violence flared up in Northern Ireland, with continuing riots in North Belfast.
Also in North Belfast, there was a further development in the controversy surrounding the murder of human rights lawyer Pat Finucane. Ken Barrett, believed to be a leading member of the Ulster Defense Association, which murdered Finucane in 1989, fled from his home in North Belfast just days after the Dec. 12 murder of UDA man William Stobie.
Also, UDA leader Johnny “Mad Dog” Adair is going to appeal last week’s court decision to deny him parole for Christmas. Adair, who is widely believed to be behind the sectarian and other violence which has swept North Belfast over the last year, denied his involvement in violence and told a reporter from The Andersonstown News:
“I have used my influence in the community to calm tensions and prevent violence in the past,” he said.
In an alarming development, a report published on Dec. 21 revealed that there were more bomb and gun attacks in 2001 than in any year since 1994, when the IRA declared a case-fire. The Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency said there were 331 shootings, 177 bombings, with 18 murders and over 1100 people injured.