Adams and Ahern urged to reveal robbery information
Reacting to leaked US diplomatic cables revealed by WikiLeaks which said then taoiseach Bertie Ahern believed he had “rock solid evidence” both Mr Adams and Northern Ireland Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness were aware of the €31 million heist, Fine Gael said the Sinn Féin leader’s denials were no longer credible.
Speaking to the Irish Examiner, Louth TD Fergus O’Dowd said it was now time for Mr Adams to come clean on any connection to the criminal bank robbery.
The Fine Gael candidate, who is running in the same constituency as Mr Adams in the upcoming general election, said he “certainly doesn’t believe” the two SF officials were in the dark over the heist plan before it happened.
“Whatever information he has should be put into the public domain. I certainly don’t believe him when he says he doesn’t know what happened,” Mr O’Dowd said.
The opposition TD said Bertie Ahern should also make any information he has on the matter public.
The Sinn Féin president, who repeatedly denied any knowledge of the Northern Bank heist plan in interviews yesterday, was last night confirmed as the party’s general election candidate in Louth.
Justice Minister Dermot Ahern said the statement that Mr Ahern was certain Mr Adams and Mr McGuinness knew of the bank heist is still “the belief” of cabinet.
Labour Party leader Eamon Gilmore would only state that “clearly Mr Adams and Mr McGuinness have questions that they have to answer about that, and I think it’s for them to answer them”.
In Northern Ireland, both the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) and the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) have said senior Sinn Féin members will “face the full rigours of the law” and could be removed from power-sharing if they had any prior knowledge of the robbery.
