Archbishop urges IRA to disband

The head of the Catholic Church in Ireland today demanded IRA disbandment - but immediately faced pressure to go even further.

Archbishop of Armagh, Dr Sean Brady, insisted violence could not be justified.

His call came after he was roundly attacked for criticising the British government’s handling of security force collusion with loyalist killers in Northern Ireland.

Unionists were outraged by a speech where the Catholic primate also appeared sceptical over changes to the North's overwhelmingly Protestant police service.

He challenged political representatives to go the “extra mile” to achieve police reform.

Although he provoked widespread anger, both colleagues within the Catholic church and Northern Ireland’s chief constable, Hugh Orde, insisted the assessment delivered in London had been balanced.

And today Dr Brady made a direct appeal for the Provisionals to go out of business.

He told BBC Radio Ulster’s Sunday Sequence: “We must dispel any ambivalence in our own community about the presence or actions of non-democratic and totally unaccountable armed groups in our own community.

“I’m calling on people to forsake once and for all the armed struggle.”

One of his fiercest critics over his first speech, Democratic Unionist policing board representative Ian Paisley Jr, claimed the Archbishop had helped end the confusion.

But the North Antrim Assemblyman pressed for a further declaration that the IRA’s killing spree, which left hundreds of police and soldiers dead, could not be excused by the Catholic church.

He said: “His call on the IRA to disband is welcome.

“I would ask him to include in his new thinking a statement that at no time has any violence by republicans against the police and army or the civilian population been justified.

“Such a statement would go the extra mile in identifying the illegitimate nature of paramilitary violence.”

Mr Paisley insisted that Dr Brady was in an unrivalled position to influence his own community, many of whom still refuse to join the new police force because it has been boycotted by republicans.

“It’s imperative that he makes it clear to the Roman Catholic population that they must wholeheartedly support the police,” he said.

“It’s evident that the much clearer language from Sean Brady is helpful in reducing community tension than his previous ponderous speech.”