New book claims government met with Real IRA

FINE GAEL leader Enda Kenny last night called on the Taoiseach to clarify the full extent of any contact between the Government and the Real IRA.

Mr Kenny was speaking after claims that Senator Martin Mansergh met with real IRA chief Michael McKevitt, four months after the Omagh bombing.

The Taoiseach has denied in the Dáil that such a meeting took place.

According to a new book - Black Operations, by journalists John Mooney and Michael O’Toole - Mr Mansergh met Mr McKevitt in a secret meeting in December 1988 in Dundalk. At the time Mansergh was the Taoiseach’s closest advisor on Northern Ireland.

Kenny said the latest revelations were particularly disturbing for the relatives of those who lost their lives in the Omagh atrocity. “The revelations are very disturbing because they suggest that the Government may have been negotiating with this illegal terrorist organisation, when it should have been trying to bring them to justice.

“In order to allay the genuine concerns of the victims’ families, the details of the Nally Report should be published immediately. This report examines to what extent the security forces were aware that the Real IRA was planning the Omagh atrocity,” he said.

Speaking yesterday Mansergh said: “It relates to a period when I wasn’t a senator and I was an advisor to the Government,” he said, adding that he had no further comment. The Government press office was unavailable for comment last night.

Speaking in the Dáil last year, Bertie Ahern denied there had been any contact between the Government and members of the real IRA. “In the case of the Real IRA, there was no contact with any member of the Government,” he said.

However, according to Black Operations, Ahern specifically dispatched Mansergh to meet Michael McKevitt.