Dissidents 'will not destroy peace process'

Dissident republicans will fail in their attempts to destroy the Northern Ireland peace process, Sinn Féin chief negotiator Martin McGuinness said today.

They would not be able to force a situation in which the IRA would re-engage in its war, he said.

“I think that there are people within these small dissident groups, or rejectionist groups, on the republican side who acknowledge privately to themselves that as military forces they are totally and absolutely ineffective,” said Mr McGuinness, MP for Mid Ulster.

“But I believe that some of them harbour the notion that involvement in these types of activities can bring about a collapse of the peace process and bring about a situation where the IRA would go back to war – and I believe that their strategy will fail and will fail miserably.”

Mr McGuinness’s comments come after police said they had uncovered an intelligence-gathering operation by dissident republicans at a Belfast hospital, and in the wake of an upsurge in terrorist activity, including a number of foiled bomb attacks.

Medical records at the Royal Victoria Hospital in the west of the city were being accessed to target police officers, politicians and members of the policing board, it was alleged.

Mr McGuinness told the BBC Radio Ulster’s programme Inside Politics that dissident republicans had nothing to offer the people of Northern Ireland.

“I think there is a duty and a responsibility on those people just to sit back and reflect that they’re flowing against the tide,” he added.