Adams: IRA would disband to move process

Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams has given his strongest hint yet that the IRA is prepared to disband to facilitate progress in the peace process.

Mr Adams said yesterday that unionists were using the existence of the IRA as an excuse to block progress and republicans needed to be prepared to remove this obstacle.

He said he accepted that unionists had “justifiable” fears about the IRA, but the organisation would only go away in a context in which progress was possible.

The Democratic Unionist Party’s Ian Paisley Jnr reacted with scepticism to the remarks, saying actions and not words were needed from the republican movement.