Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams yesterday evening made a keynote address at a
special event organised in aid of the Tim Parry Johnathan Ball Foundation
for Peace. The Foundation was set up following the deaths of schoolboy Tim
Parry and toddler Johnathan Ball in an IRA bombing in Warrington in 1993. Mr
Adams met with the parents of Tim Parry, Colin and Wendy Parry, at the
event. Mr Adams repeated an earlier apology to Colin and Wendy Parry for
their son's death and for the deaths of all other non-combatants.
Gerry Adams raises the issue of conflict resolution. Today we experience worldwide escalating conflicts. Looking at the
Anglo-Irish conflict can teach us a lot. The erosion of civil rights sold by governments as necessary step in fighting
terrorism is not only looking back to the 35 years of conflict in the North of Ireland, but is our today's experience.
The question of truth for the victims of the conflict is a very important issue which still needs to be resolved. A
difficult task within such a truth process is dealing with the crimes committed by Government agencies.
Gerry Adams stresses the need of independency:
The United Nations or another reputable agency could be involved ..." |
'Everything done by a government and its agents in combating insurgency must be legitimate. But this does not mean that the government must work within exactly the same set of laws during an emergency as existed before hand. The law should be used as just another weapon in the government's arsenal, in which case it becomes little more than a propaganda cover for the disposal of unwanted members of the public.'Thousands were killed and injured, tens of thousands imprisoned, many without trial, there was massive destruction, a whole new plethora of repressive laws were introduced, including media censorship, and widespread collusion was institutionalised within the British state between British state forces and unionist death squads. This included the provision of files by British government agencies to unionist paramilitaries on individuals, as well as weapons and weapons training. Hundreds of citizens were killed through this policy. By the mid to late 1970s it was obvious that there was a military stalemate. The British could not defeat the IRA -- the IRA could not militarily defeat the British. And the violence continued with each side seeking to develop new strategies, new tactics, new and more deadly ways of killing each other. Within republicanism, armed struggle was the dominating tendency. There was a belief that only the IRA could move the British government. There may have been misgivings or serious concerns about particular military operations but there was no real dissent from armed struggle. It was taken for granted that that was the way of things.
'Those republicans who engage in armed struggle, or who defend the legitimacy of armed struggle in pursuance of Irish independence, do so, not through any fixation with physical force, but through a necessity. Those who voice a moral condemnation of this tactic have a responsibility to spell out an alternative course by which Irish independence can be secured. I for one would be pleased to consider such an alternative.'I have to say it became clear very quickly to me and to others in our leadership that if we were to wait on others providing the alternative it would never happen. They were locked in a mindset. The preoccupation of our political opponents was to defeat republicans. But slowly and very privately we began to reach out to others. John Hume. People from within the protestant churches. And by the early 1990's we were in contact with the Irish government, and through friends in the US we were reaching out to Irish America and through them eventually to US Presidential hopeful Bill Clinton. And in this way, slowly, and with great difficulty we began to put together a package which held out the possibility of creating an alternative to war. The position of the IRA was to continue the war. The IRA leadership was open to the idea of supporting a peace process but it was also committed to pursuing the armed struggle. Essentially the IRA leadership had to consider whether the package -- the alternative --had the potential to advance republican and democratic goals. My task and that of Martin McGuinness, was to convince the IRA leadership that ending armed actions didn't mean giving up republican objectives. It meant creating an unarmed struggle in which republican and democratic objectives could be pursued by peaceful and democratic means.The IRA leadership agreed and the cessation that followed lasted a year and a half. The Major government failed to take up the challenge.The new Blair government in May 1997 did engage and a second cessation in July of that year saw the beginning of a process which led to the Good Friday Agreement less than a year later. Of course getting the Agreement was one thing. Implementing it has been another. And here too patience and perseverance and a willingness to take risks and take initiatives are crucial. The process has had its ups and downs. Serious efforts have been made by some unionist political leaders, unionist paramilitaries and elements within the British military and political system, to undermine the process. There are a small number of so-called 'dissident republicans' who have similarly opposed it. In April 2005 I pointed out that there was now an alternative to armed struggle and I appealed to the IRA to 'fully embrace and accept this alternative.' Several months later in July the IRA formally ordered an end to the armed campaign. In September the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning and the IRA and the two witnesses confirmed that the process to put arms beyond use had been completed. Two more torturous years of negotiating continued beyond that but finally this year, in March, Ian Paisley and I struck a deal for the restoration of the political institutions. And in May the power sharing Executive, the Assembly, and the all-Ireland political institutions and cross border bodies, were all fully restored with Ian Paisley as First Minister and Martin McGuinness as Deputy First Minister -- equals -- running the north's new institutions.
"With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations.As an Irish republican and as a democrat I remain convinced of the right of the people of the island of Ireland to shape our own future from outside interference. In my view our future will be best served by ending the union and removing partition. There is now a democratic and peaceful way to achieve these objectives. That means shaping society and politics in Ireland so that all sections of our people are secure and cherished. That my friends is our task -- Let us make it happen. Finally may I once again thank Colin and Wendy for the opportunity to speak here today. And thank you once again for the remarkable grace with which you have borne the awful loss of your son Tim.