IRA will not give in to threats - Adams

Gerry Adams conceded today that ‘‘alleged’’ IRA activities were boosting the cause of those opposing the Northern Ireland peace process.

But the Sinn Fein leader also told Tony Blair that the IRA was never going to disband in response to ultimatums.

In a major speech billed by his party as a considered reply to Britain's Prime Minister’s demand for an end to Irish Republic-linked violence, Mr Adams declared: ‘‘Our view is that the IRA cessations (cease fires) effectively moved the army out of the picture - and allowed the rest of us to begin an entirely new process.’’

Mr Adams was speaking at a conference of elected representatives of Sinn Fein from both sides of the border in Monaghan.

His speech was understood to have been handed in advance to both the Irish and British governments late last night.

The Sinn Fein chief referred at length to Mr Blair’s recent comments about the peace process in Belfast when he said the continued existence of the IRA was being made a leverage in negotiations by republicans.

Mr Adams said: ‘‘I can understand the sense of Mr Blair’s perception about all of this but I am sure, if he has paused to reconsider, he will see the flaw in this version of events.

‘‘As one of the republicans involved in all of the negotiations with the British government I can state categorically that we never made the IRA an issue.

In fact, the agreement came some years after the IRA cessations and I believe that the maintenance of those cessations and various initiatives by the IRA demonstrate that organisation’s commitment to this process.’’

He went on: ‘‘I do not pretend to speak for the army (IRA) on these matters but I do believe that they are serious about their support for a genuine peace process. They have said so. I believe them.’’

He said he wanted to see every British soldier out of Ireland and he believed it would happen.

‘‘I will continue to work and this party will continue to work towards these objectives until they are a reality because I know it will be achieved by a process, not by way of ultimatums for me or any other Irish person.

‘‘Similarly the IRA is never going to respond to ultimatums from the British government or David Trimble (Northern Ireland’s First Minister).

Mr Adams said he acknowledged in a very clear way that the difficulties within unionism in Northern Ireland had been severely exacerbated by ‘‘the ongoing focus on alleged IRA activities’’.

He went on: ‘‘What ever we think about the unionist willingness to embrace the process of change, the unrelenting concentration on activities, which it is claimed involve Irish Republicans, are grist to the mill of those within political unionism or indeed within the British system in Ireland who are opposed to change.

‘‘It is also destabilising those who countenance change.

‘‘Whatever we, or for that matter the IRA, say about these allegations. Wall-to-wall daily coverage in the media, fed by stories planted from within the British system, ensure that the denials are dismissed or doubted by even the more progressive elements.’’

Mr Adams stressed however that he envisaged a future without the IRA and asked who could influence that organisation most.

He answered: ‘‘The British government - the Unionists - the Irish Government and us as well of course. All of us have to make politics work.’’

Mr Adams said the challenge for Mr Blair who had made a singular and exceptional contribution to the peace process was quite profound.

‘‘Mr Blair, I believe should see Britain’s strategic interests being best served by the democratic resolution of the long-standing quarrel between the people of these two islands. His task in the short term has to be to continue the process of peacemaking.

‘‘The challenge for Mr Blair is to shape his own system, his own agencies, to make this process work and in doing so to accept that the leaderships of political unionism will not journey along the Good Friday Agreement process if they can avoid that.’’

Mr Adams said his party was seen by an increasing section of the electorate to be one which was the engine of the peace process but pointed out that 10 years ago they had been a demonised organisation.

He again criticised the suspension of the Northern Ireland Executive and referred to the issue of policing there.

The Sinn Fein leader claimed that the Special Branch and MI5 remained at the heart of the new policing service in Northern Ireland and added the claim: ‘‘They are the epicentre of the political police we agreed to remove.’’

Mr Adams added: ‘‘However an acceptable policing service is crucial for all sections of our people in the North. And if power can be transferred on a range of key issues there is no reason why policing and justice cannot be devolved on the same basis.

‘‘So, consequently I can conceive of a world in which it would be appropriate for Sinn Fein to join (the Northern Ireland Policing Board) and participate fully in the policing arrangements on a democratic basis.

‘‘That has to be when there is a proper beginning to policing, as agreed in the Good Friday Agreement and as recommended by the Patten Report.

‘‘Nationalists and republicans also need to be convinced, as do in my view a lot of Unionists, that toleration by British agencies of unionist paramilitaries has ended.’’