GRA seeks meeting with Taoiseach
After a four-hour meeting in Adare, where Det Gda McCabe was gunned down in a post office van robbery in 1996, the GRA also called on Sinn Féin to withdraw its demand for the early release of the four killers and an amnesty for others who left the country after the killing.
The GRA said the force had been let down by the Government going back on earlier assurances that there would be no early release for the four.
The GRA denied standing in the way of the Northern Peace Process.
Limerick GRA national executive member, Paul Browne said: “As far as I am concerned, the gun should not be put to the head of the GRA or Ann McCabe in this issue. We are not standing in the way of any peace process. It is as simple as this: the mistake was made by the Government in putting this (early release) on the agenda with Sinn Féin when they knew full well that it should not, in that the government had a deal struck with the GRA and, most importantly, with the McCabe family.”
Since the Taoiseach’s statement in the Dáil last week about an early release being part of present negotiations, Mr Browne said he had never experienced such a reaction among members of the force.
He said the Government should tell Sinn Féin that early release was not negotiable and that it was a small price for them to pay given the lenient sentence handed down to the four men.
“Sinn Féin must concede,” said Mr Browne.
The GRA wants to meet the Taoiseach within days.
Mr Browne said some strong views had been expressed at yesterday’s meeting of the 20-member GRA Limerick executive.
“Many of us who served with Jerry feel very let down on the issue after the assurances we were given by this Government. We are unhappy with the fact that six months ago we met with the Minister for Justice Michael McDowell and afterwards we expressed that we were somewhat assured by his utterances at the time on the issue. We now believe that these assurances were without foundation and feel the only solution to this impasse is to meet with the Taoiseach to put it directly to him, how strongly our members feel on the issue,” said Mr Browne.
An early release for the IRA men, he added, should never have made it on to the negotiating table.
He said that after the meeting with the Taoiseach, the GRA will hold an emergency meeting to discuss any possible action.
He said it may go the legal route by seeking a court injunction against the government to block an early release on the basis of a written commitment given in December 1999 by the then Minister for Justice John O’Donoghue.
