North crisis - Sinn Féin can save Agreement

In the wake of the Northern Bank raid and the murder of Robert McCartney, there seemed to be no limit to the criminality of the IRA. But some very positive developments have given rise to grounds for new hope that the Good Friday Agreement may yet be saved.

Back in December, there was a real hope for a breakthrough in the Northern impasse, with Rev Ian Paisley appearing almost ready to share power with Sinn Féin, but the optimism soon gave way to disappointment over the dispute about photographing, then to disillusionment after the bank robbery, and to virtual despair following the McCartney murder.

Gerry Adams complained yesterday about southern politicians demonising Republicans in Belfast. Mr Adams cannot blame others for the mistakes of the Republicans. They are responsible for demonising themselves by their own behaviour.

Whatever doubts people may have harboured about the perpetrators of the Northern Bank robbery, there has been no doubt whatever that Republicans were implicated in the McCartney murder.

Mr Adams and the IRA have acknowledged this by their announcement of the expulsion of three high-ranking members of the IRA over their involvement in the killing.

They have also publicly advised them “in the strongest terms possible to come forward to take responsibility for their actions, as the McCartneys have asked”.

Sinn Féin and the IRA have never been slow to denounce the excesses of either loyalist murder gangs or the security forces, but the McCartney killing ranks with any of those murders. It was ironic that some of the people involved had just returned from a Bloody Sunday protest in Derry.

The tardiness of Sinn Féin and the IRA in facing up to the responsibility of their members for the McCartney murder did enormous damage to the growing respectability being earned by Sinn Féin. The belated recognition by Mr Adams and the IRA that the killing was a crime and that the McCartney family deserved help in bringing the perpetrators to justice, has given rise to new grounds for hope.

But the words must be backed up by actions to ensure that the guilty are brought to justice.

“If these men walk free from this,” Paula McCartney warned yesterday, “then everyone in Ireland should fear the consequences. Justice must be done.”

Against the background of IRA criminality, Rev Paisley has been able to project himself as statesmanlike, and even moderate in his insistence that there is no room for criminality in politics. No self-respecting democracy would tolerate the events of recent weeks.

Sinn Féin and the IRA have the opportunity to foreswear such activity and they have the means of demonstrating their sincerity both by ensuring that their influence is used to secure justice for the McCartney family and by clearly demonstrating that they have decommissioned their weapons.

Rev Paisley’s insistence that power-sharing can only be achieved “on the basis of democratic principles” is not only understandable but also right. The controversy has been moved out of the realm of humiliation. It is now about the affirmation of democratic principles.