Daily Ireland, 26 July 2006
Crime bluff is over: Governments finally admit that IRA is not involved in
so-called criminality, meaning DUP’s flimsy excuse is gone
The Irish and British governments said publicly yesterday that the IRA was honouring its
pledges to cease military operations and ensure that volunteers did not
“engage in any other activities whatsoever”.
British secretary of state Peter Hain said there was no excuse for political
parties to refuse to engage and restore devolved government in the North by
a November 24 deadline.
He said: “There probably is still some localised individual criminality by
former and maybe existing Provisional IRA members for their own private gain.
“What there is not is any organised ‘from-the-centre’ criminality any more.
“To that extent, the IRA are delivering on their commitments made last July,
not just in respect of shutting down paramilitary activity but also shutting
down criminality.”
Sinn Féin last night said the Irish and British governments were stating the
obvious in their declaration that the IRA had honoured its promises.
Newry and Armagh MP Conor Murphy said “serious work” aimed at restoring the
North’s assembly must begin.
“It didn’t take Peter Hain or anyone else to tell us that the IRA has
honoured its commitments. That’s obvious to everyone on the ground.
“The DUP must now stop hiding behind excuses and get down to serious work,”
he said.
Editorial:
Criminality excuse finally laid to rest
The Northern Secretary of State, Peter Hain, was merely expressing what most
people know to have been the truth for some time when he stated yesterday
that the IRA is no longer involved in centrally organised ‘criminality’.
Justice Minister Michael McDowell sang from the same hymn sheet when he was
asked if he believed that the IRA was fulfilling the promises it made last
year: “The Irish government and British government are working on that
assumption, based on the evidence we have.”
That’s quite a turnaround for a man who earned his hard man spurs on the
back of lambasting republicans at every available opportunity. What can be
seen quite clearly today in the wake of the positive words of Irish and
British government ministers yesterday is that the vast bulk of what we’ve
heard in recent months and years about ‘IRA criminality’ was hyperbole and
hysteria designed to stem Sinn Féin’s electoral advances, particularly in
the South.
It was as recently as last year that Mr McDowell said that the extent of
“IRA-Sinn Féin criminality” was such that it had led to the creation of a
“Provo state within a state”. Can it really be the case that a “Provo state
within a state” has been dismantled and decommissioned in just a matter of
months? Hardly. Rather, yesterday’s developments suggest that the heated and
colourful rhetoric about republicans and criminality was just that –
rhetoric.
What is important is that yesterday’s words are matched with action, and the
action required is that of letting the DUP know in no uncertain terms that
their fig-leaf excuse for halting political progress will no longer be
accepted and convincing them that there will be a political price to be paid
should they continue to stall.
The first anniversary of the historic IRA decision to end its armed campaign
is rapidly approaching and already much of the forward momentum created by
that courageous initiative has been dissipated by DUP hypocrisy and cant.
While members of that party happily rub shoulders with loyalist
paramilitaries demonstrating clearly that their repeated assertions that
they are opposed to all violence and criminality, whatever the source, is
meaningless bluster. The British government knows that as well as anybody
else – Peter Hain knows that he now has an opportunity to put the DUP’s feet
to the fire. Whether he will take his courage in his hands and do it is
another question entirely.
Rather than stagger towards the November deadline with uncertainty and
trepidation swirling all around, now is the time to inject a bit of purpose
and urgency into the process. Now is the time for the Irish and British
government to tell the DUP that the final words have been spoken on
criminality, just as they have been on decommissioning.
