Sinn Féin denials no comfort to unionists

THE North’s bloodstained history had lulled its people into believing they could no longer be shocked.

However, unionists and republicans last night admitted they were stunned by the murder of former Sinn Féin head of administration-turned-British agent Denis Donaldson.

Since admitting in Dublin last December that he had spied on his colleagues in the republican movement for two decades, Mr Donaldson had gone to ground.

In the last 16 weeks of his life, he moved to a remote cottage in Glenties, Co Donegal, with no electricity or mains water supply.

It was assumed, following the IRA’s declaration last July that it was ending its armed campaign, that he was untouchable.

Sinn Féin was anxious to distance itself from the killing - a fact which did not go unnoticed by the two governments, as Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and British Premier Tony Blair prepared to travel to Armagh tomorrow to unveil their plan for bringing back the power-sharing assembly.

They are set to announce that the assembly will be recalled in May and given six weeks to form a power-sharing government featuring the Democratic Unionists and Sinn Féin.

If that proves impossible, the governments will recall the parties in September with a view to giving them an absolute deadline of November 24 to try again.

Unionists and nationalists have been sceptical about the prospect of power-sharing returning before the summer. But they have also been doubtful about November 24. Those doubts were exacerbated by Denis Donaldson’s murder.

A republican source said: “Undoubtedly there is going to be fallout and unionists are going to jump on this.

“But I have no doubt that this murder was not the work of republicans.

“Certainly it has been carried out by enemies of the peace process. People have got to ask who stood to gain from this?”

Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams said he was keeping an open mind on who was responsible. But he was at pains to stress that Sinn Féin and republicans who supported the peace process condemned the murder.

Democratic Unionist MP Sammy Wilson claimed the murder would certainly harden opinion in the unionist community towards any future government featuring Sinn Féin.

“The fact that Gerry Adams has rushed out so quickly to distance Sinn Féin from this is an indication that the Provos know this is going to have massive implications for the process not just over the next few days but months.

“I have no doubt that eventually this will be traced back to republicans and, even if there is no absolute proof of Provisional IRA involvement, no one will believe the rapid denials from people on the provisional wing of republicanism.

“People will remember all the denials from Sinn Féin after the Northern Bank robbery and the murder of Robert McCartney which were blamed on the Provisional IRA.

“Certainly, this will make unionists feel very wary about going into government with Sinn Féin and I think the two prime ministers have got to be asking themselves what are the prospects of achieving their goal in November.

“The next Independent Monitoring Commission report is not going to be capable of giving Sinn Féin a clean bill of health after this, even if there is no absolute proof of Provisional IRA involvement.”

News of the murder broke as a DUP delegation met US politicians, including Senators Edward Kennedy and Hillary Clinton and Congressman Jim Walsh.

DUP deputy leader Peter Robinson and his colleagues were expected to tell Irish-American politicians the murder underlined just why his party was right to be cautious about forming a power-sharing government with republicans.