SF thinks it's above the law, claims SDLP's McGrady

Sinn Féin was accused today of thinking republicans were above the law and didn’t have to live by the same rules as everyone else.

As the Northern Ireland political process remained in crisis following the pre-Christmas Northern Bank robbery, there was no let up in the blame game.

SDLP MP Eddie McGrady said today that Sinn Féin clearly “thinks that the provisions are above the law. That they don’t have to live by the same rules as the rest of us and are entitled to do what they like”.

Sinn Féin, like his own party, talked about equality, he said. “The difference is that we believe in it – Sinn Féin don’t. They think that the basic laws of decency and morality must apply equally to all of us but don’t apply to them.

“The governments have to send the strong message that nobody is above the law. Not the police. Not loyalists. And not the IRA.”

Meanwhile, Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams was again blaming Ian Paisley’s Democratic Unionist Party for the perilous state of the peace process.

Brushing off blame from republicans, he admitted the bank raid had caused huge problems, but said the peace process was in crisis before the heist.

In Belfast, he said: “The crisis in this process didn’t start with this bank robbery, the crisis came when the huge effort we made for the previous 12 months almost came to fruition in December.

“We had the IRA prepared to put its weapons beyond use before Christmas, order its volunteers to move to a new mode.

“The leadership was prepared to actively support a comprehensive agreement and that is where the crisis came and Ian Paisley’s response was ‘That isn’t good enough, we need the IRA humiliated’.”