Adams’ speech ‘will not resolve crisis’

SINN FÉIN gave no tangible indication at the party’s Árd Fheis that it is ready to end republican links with criminality and paramiltarism, Government sources said yesterday.

While the Government formally declined to respond to Gerry Adams’ address on Saturday, sources pointed out that the SF leader had said little that would help resolve the current crisis.

Mr Adams’s speech was very short on specifics, with the exception of the commitments Mr Adams made to the family of Robert McCartney, they said.

It strengthened the Government’s view that the process will remain in abeyance until well after the Westminster elections in May.

That position was bolstered by comments from SF’s chief negotiator Martin McGuinness yesterday. He told RTÉ that it would be the other side of the British election before there would be opportunity for momentum.

The Government’s attitude to SF has hardened considerably since the Northern Bank robbery on December 20, with no contacts at either ministerial or official levels in recent weeks.

The sources said yesterday that the Taoiseach’s view on resuming talks with SF remained unchanged: that the republican movement must match its rhetoric with tangible commitments.

“The days of interpreting and analysing Sinn Féin and republican statements are over. It’s not what they say but what they actually do that now matters,” said the sources.

“If there were a new set of proposals, it would make a difference. But quite clearly there was not.”

While admitting that IRA members were involved in Mr McCartney’s murder, Mr Adams restated his party’s controversial definition on criminality.

“We refuse to criminalise those who break the law in pursuit of legitimate political objectives,” he said.

The SF leader last night accepted that there was “unease” in republican ranks over his decision to suspend Sinn Féin members and forward to the Northern police ombudsman the list of suspects handed to him by the McCartney sisters.

“There is no other way of dealing with the issue,” he told RTÉ’s Week in Politics. “I was duty bound to suspend them without prejudice.”

He also said he believed there would be convictions in the case.

The opposition leaders were yesterday also both openly critical of Mr Adams’ address.