Government presses Sinn Fein over IRA

The Government today applied further pressure on Sinn Fein to force action from their IRA allies to advance the Northern Ireland peace process.

Tanaiste Mary Harney declared: “We don’t want weasel words, we want clarity.”

She added: “We are fed up waiting for Sinn Fein to tell us the war is over and the guns and semtex will be put beyond use.”

Ms Harney said the British and Irish governments and the other political parties had been prepared to give Sinn Fein space to move into the democratic political process.

She added: “They have found that there is an electoral home for them there. I don’t know why it is they want to continue to have a private army.

“I have never believed that there is a distinction between Sinn Fein and the IRA – that is a myth. They are one organisation.

“The provisional movement is a single organisation and it is about time (party leader) Mr Gerry Adams and his colleagues faced up to their responsibilities, and, instead of keeping the people of this island waiting, it is time to put into reality the mandate they were given to work only with peaceful means.”

Speaking on RTE radio after her Progressive Democrat party’s annual conference in Galway, Ms Harney agreed that the development she was seeking meant Sinn Fein abandoning the IRA and all weapons and explosives.

She said the time had come for “no ambiguity whatever. We don’t want weasel words, we want a clear statement, we want the truth, we want clarity. We don’t want to have to read between the lines.

“I think we should get it, and I hope we do. There are only a couple of days left. Certainly the government will work extremely hard to try and get the answer we want, and no stone will be left unturned.

“I believe the people of this country, north and south, will be very disillusioned and very angry if we don’t get the answer we are expecting to get.”