Morgan stands by IRA demilitarisation claim

WE will never see the full demilitarisation of the IRA, Sinn Féin deputy Arthur Morgan insisted yesterday.

The Louth TD said he would not retract the comment made during a heated debate of the British Irish Inter-Parliamentary Body earlier this week.

Former British MP Peter Temple-Morris had accused Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams of failing to deliver the IRA in the Northern peace process. Mr Morgan responded by telling the Labour peer it was not up to Sinn Féin or Gerry Adams to deliver the IRA.

Yesterday he insisted: "I got fed up with Peter Temple-Morris's rant and said we would never see the full demilitarisation of the IRA I'm not retracting that."

Asked if that was not against the terms of the Good Friday Agreement, where the IRA gave a commitment to decommission their weapons, Mr Morgan said: "There has been a significant amount of decommissioning so far but this process cannot be completed until the political institutions are up and running."

The Louth TD was convicted of possession of explosives and weapons in 1977. He yesterday admitted his past membership of the IRA, but added he "did not go back after 1984".