‘Keep your dirty hands off Northern Ireland’

IAN PAISLEY yesterday warned Taoiseach Bertie Ahern: “Keep your dirty hands off Northern Ireland.”

However, his words were largely dismissed as hot air, with the prospects of IRA disbandment and a return to power-sharing in Stormont still largely on track.

As the British and Irish Governments wait for an IRA statement to signal an end to criminality, the Democratic Unionist leader also told republicans any peace pledges would take months to prove.

Mr Paisley and Taoiseach Bertie Ahern were in agreement, however, that it is time for IRA action on ending all violence, rather than just words.

A response from the Provisionals to Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams’ call for them to commit to totally democratic means is expected within weeks. Mr Ahern, who had separate talks with Prime Minister Tony Blair, insisted the organisation did not necessarily have to disband. He suggested it could remain as a commemorative body.

Parades and old boys’ reunions could be organised so long as it ceased all paramilitary activity, the Taoiseach said.

But whenever the IRA statement emerges, Mr Ahern said it had to be clear and unambiguous about halting all terrorism and crime, and completing decommissioning.

“It is not just words, it is deeds,” he stressed.

With unionist trust in republicans shattered by the £26.5 million (€39.85m) Northern Bank heist and the Robert McCartney murder, both blamed on the IRA, Mr Paisley is in no rush to go back into a new power-sharing administration alongside Sinn Féin.

The North Antrim MP, who heads Northern Ireland’s biggest political party, said it would take months for the IRA to first prove any promises were genuine.

Riled by Mr Ahern’s intervention over this summer’s marching season, the DUP chief went on the offensive.

The 90-minute session was described by Mr Paisley as “brutally frank, absolutely straight.”

He revealed: “I did say that I didn’t want the Taoiseach to put his dirty hands on internal Northern Irish matters and I said it to his face.”

Mr Ahern, who has called for the Orange Order to enter parade negotiations, defended his actions as an attempt to stop trouble flaring in the North during the summer. He said: “We just want to get safely through the parade period. I don’t see how anyone could take offence if they want to see peaceful parades.”