Sinn Féin 'committed to peace' says Adams

Sinn Féin does not have to pass any “special tests” to prove its commitment to peace, the party’s president Gerry Adams said today.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair this week told Sinn Féin it had to realise that unless it was prepared to commit exclusively to peaceful means it could not be part of the government of Northern Ireland.

But Mr Adams today said the UK prime minister was in no position to lecture Sinn Féin.

Mr Adams said: “We don’t have to pass any special tests.

“We signed up to an agreement, we did it by choice, not because we were coerced or repressed.”

Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble last week demanded Sinn Féin was kicked out of the talks after the attempted kidnapping of a dissident republican. He said he would walk away from the talks unless the UK government took action.

Mr Adams said that would serve no purpose and Sinn Féin could not be marginalised as it was the largest pro-agreement party in Northern Ireland.

“I think all this knee-jerking is really down to macho posturing between the two main branches of unionism,” he told Sky News.

The IRA has denied it was behind the attempted abduction. Mr Adams said there was no evidence it was involved. And he said the “brawl in a pub” must be put in perspective.

“If you want a crisis in a peace process, what’s happening in the Middle East is a crisis, what happened here was a brawl in a pub. We need to get real about all of this.”

Mr Adams said he respected the mandate of other parties and they should do likewise in respect of Sinn Féin.

Sinn Féin chairman Mitchell McLaughlin yesterday warned the peace process would collapse if the UK government gave in to demands to expel it from talks to restore devolution.

He said Sinn Féin was “an absolutely essential element” of the peace process and was electorally too strong to be sidelined.

Four men have been charged in connection with the attempted kidnapping of republican Bobby Tohill from a Belfast city centre bar.

Police Service of Northern Ireland Chief Constable Hugh Orde claimed the Provisional IRA was behind the incident, sparking unionist demands for Sinn Féin’s expulsion from the review.

But in a statement released to the republican newspaper An Phoblacht, an IRA source denied the attempted abduction was sanctioned by its leadership.