Thursday-Saturday, 10-12 February, 2005
By Irish Republican News
Thursday-Saturday, 10-12 February, 2005
Put up or shut up
By Irish Republican News
Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams has accused Dublin premier Bertie Ahern of 'crossing the line' over allegations that he and Martin McGuinness were aware of plans to carry out a bank raid before Christmas.
Mr Adams has called on Ahern to withdraw the allegations or else have him charged with a criminal offence.
The Dublin and London governments have said they back the conjecture of the PSNI police that the Provisional IRA were responsible for a giant cash raid on the Northern Bank in Belfast in December.
No evidence to link the IRA or any other group to the heist has emerged.
However, the Fianna Fail leader made the extraordinary allegation last month that the Sinn Fein leadership were aware of the bank heist plan even as last year's negotiations were reaching their climax.
Ahern's declaration, broadcast moments after the accusation against the IRA was made by the PSNI chief Hugh Orde, effectively marked the collapse of peace efforts in the North.
A bitter war of words quickly erupted between Sinn Fein and rival political groups. In particular, Ahern was accused of playing "dirty politics" with the peace process ahead of crucial elections in the North in May.
"I think the Taoiseach has crossed the line. It's time for him to shut up or put up," said Mr Adams.
"I don't go for this wink-and- nod politics where they say what they say and then they say to you and to others, you know, well it's hard to bring these people to court and we need them for the process and so on and so forth.
"If he [Mr Ahern] believes that I am involved in a criminal conspiracy to rob, and that I withheld information, then he has a civic responsibility to make sure that I am subjected and Martin McGuinness is subjected to the due process."
Mr Adams said malign elements in the British system were "laughing" at the outbreak of civil war within Irish nationalism.
Speaking in Belfast on Thursday, he said it was the success of Sinn Fein which had unleashed "a torrent of abuse".
"It is almost like the days before the peace process, when the Irish and British establishments and unionist parties ganged up, trying to outdo each other in anti-Sinn Fein hysteria, aided at times by compliant sections of the media."
The Taoiseach responded by accusing Mr Adams of being "childish".
"Letting on that the cigarettes weren't taken or that the drink wasn't taken or the petrol wasn't taken or the punishment beatings didn't happen, sure that's kind of childish stuff," said Mr Ahern.
"All that we were stating was facts and now the facts have been collaborated by the garda, by the British government, by the PSNI, by everybody, so I mean it's a senseless thing."
But Mr Adams pointed to an interview with PSNI Chief Hugh Orde published this week, in which Orde admitted he had "no idea" if the Sinn Fein leadership knew about the robbery.
"The fact is that he [Ahern] has made a claim which he cannot corroborate or substantiate... The Taoiseach should stop making these malicious and untrue allegations."
He called for clear-the-air talks with the Taoiseach to resolve the row.
"It is important that when we get to that point that genuine dialogue should be conducted in an atmosphere which makes success possible.
"That is one of the reasons why we are so vigorous in defending ourselves from these accusations."
ELECTORALISM GONE MAD
Sinn Fein chief negotiator Mr McGuinness also said the crisis was particularly damaging.
Mr McGuinness described what was happening as "pure electoralism gone mad".
"It is electoralism being put over and above the need for a successful peace process. Why is that?" he said.
"The agenda is that the taoiseach in particular sees the profile of Gerry Adams as too high for his liking. Other political leaders in the south are also affected by this.
"It absolutely galls them that Gerry Adams is right up there in terms of satisfaction with the voters of the south.
"They have decided to burst his bubble and have decided to try and bring the Sinn Fein [electoral] balloon down and are prepared to resort to every dirty trick in the book."
LESSON LEARNED
Mr Adams also said he will never again allow his party to be used by the Dublin and London governments as "a conduit" to the IRA.
Mr Adams said that this was one of the political lessons he had learned recently.
The two governments had apparently used Sinn Fein negotiators to persuade the IRA to make difficult concessions on its continued activity and existence. The IRA's advanced position was embarrassingly exposed when the talks inevitably collapsed.
Earlier this month, in a statement highly critical of the governments' handling of the negotiations, the IRA rescinded its offer.
Mr Adams said that when Sinn Fein goes in to talk to a British or Irish government, it would say "we don't represent the IRA".
The West Belfast MP said: "I will ensure that they will never have the opportunity to use or abuse us as a conduit ever again in the future."
Thursday-Saturday, 10-12 February, 2005
IMC 'snow job'
By Irish Republican News
An agency of the London and Dublin governments has been condemned for particpating in an attempt to smear the leadership of Sinn Fein.
The so-called 'Independent Monitoring Commission' has claimed that unnamed senior Sinn Fein members were involved in sanctioning a pre-Christmas raid on the Northern Bank in Belfast.
The body was set up to gather evidence that military and paramilitary groups had not fufilled their requirements under the 1998 Good Friday Agreement.
However, the body, which was set up by the two governments outside the terms of the 1998 accord, has been used almost exclusively to attack Sinn Fein and the Provisional IRA.
The body, headed by Lord Alderdice and including three figures linked to intelligence agencies, was memorably dismissed on Thursday by Gerry Adams as "three spooks and a Lord".
The body implicated the IRA and senior Sinn Fein figures - allegedly also IRA members - in dramatic terms in the pre-Christmas robbery.
"We have carefully scrutinised all of the material of different kinds that have become available to us since the robbery, which leads us to conclude firmly it was planned and undertaken by the IRA," said John Grieve, former head of Scotland Yard's anti-terrorism squad.
However, as with previous allegations of IRA activity, no evidence was advanced to back the claim.
The IMC recommended that financial penalties should be imposed by the British government against Sinn Fein. Had the Assembly been sitting, it would have also proposed the suspension of Sinn Fein from the Assembly, it said.
Lord Alderdice said that if the IMC's findings were proved wrong, irrespective of whether anyone was convicted, then that "would of course be a profoundly serious matter".
It was suggested they had access to channels of information not available to the police, but it was not made clear what these were.
"Do I believe the denial of the Provisional IRA? Absolutely not.2 said IMC member John Grieve, formerly of Scotland Yard.
"That is implicit in what is in here [ in the report]. Quite frankly my position is that the people who have denied it on behalf of the Provisional IRA have got some brass neck," he said.
Mr Adams dismissed the IMC report as "rubbish". He said it was sinister that a political claim by Mr Ahern was being echoed in a "snow job" by the IMC.
He urged people to read the report. "The report is rubbish. The report makes unsubstantiated allegations, echoes the line which has been put out by the two governments, draws entirely from the same sources. If it wasn't so serious I think it would be even laughable."
There were "sinister aspects" to it. "What the IMC is doing is exactly what it was set up to do. It is a tool of the governments and therefore the governments have to share and accept responsibility for what is happening at this time." He ridiculed what he said was "the pretence that this is an independent body".
He said there was a deliberate strategy by the British and Irish governments of attempting to link Sinn Fein to the robbery. The intention was to try to prevent the electoral growth of Sinn Fein.
Thursday-Saturday, 10-12 February, 2005
Blair wants SF excluded - Durkan
By Irish Republican News
The British government has disputed an allegation by the leader of the nationalist SDLP party in the North, Mark Durkan, that itr had urged the formation of an administration in Belfast which would freeze out Sinn Fein.
Without the SDLP, a Stormont executive exluding elected Sinn Fein Ministers would have no nationalist participation and would be open to international ridicule.
As SDLP members attended their annual conference in Derry, Mr Durkan said he had been urged to enter a "voluntary coalition" with unionists during a meeting in January.
"He pushed us very strongly in the direction of voluntary coalition or exclusion, call it what you will.
"He was quite prepared to accept those terms as being interchangeable."
The idea of the exclusion of Sinn Fein has been promoted by Ian Paisley's hardline unionist DUP. But the revelation that it is the preferred option of Mr Blair did not appear to surprise Sinn Fein negotiators.
"It has always been clear that it was the hope of the British Government that the Good Friday Agreement would see the emergence of the Ulster Unionist Party and the SDLP as the dominant parties in any institution of arrangement," said Sinn Fein chief negotiator Martin McGuinness.
"In reality, today's remarks by Mark Durkan are an effort by him to make his party relevant going into the election.
"The Electorate has always spoken on this matter and Sinn Fein in confident they will do this again in the upcoming elections."
A spokesman for Mr Blair said the British government did not have a fixed idea on the way forward.
"The Government's position is that it has to explore all the options being put forward by the various parties," a Downing Street spokesman said. "That does not mean it has decided on a particular one option."
Meanwhile, Mr Durkan launched his party's Westminster election campaign with a major attack on Sinn Fein, accusing Gerry Adams of lying.
"Why would we believe you over the Taoiseach (Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern) who has done so much for the peace process? Why would he say what he did unless he had the clearest and most convincing Garda intelligence in front of him," Mr Durkan asked.
The SDLP is under threat from Sinn Fein in all three of its seats in the British parliament, and is also facing losses in the local elections, to be held on the same day. It is believed the elections will be called for May 5th.
Thursday-Saturday, 10-12 February, 2005
Analysis: Is history repeating itself?
By John Doyle
The Great Train Robbery frame-up of 1976 remains of immense political significance, not solely because it led to the longest political trial in Irish legal history at the cost of well over #1 million, not because State repression became the focus of international attention and to some extent to the downfall of a Coalition Government, but because it failed in its main attempt to discredit and pave the way for the suppression of the Irish Republican Socialist Party (IRSP).
The robbery of #620,000 from an unguarded train in Kearneystown, Co. Kildare, in the early morning of March 31st, 1976, led to a political storm
The Garda Commissioner at the time conveyed urgency down the garda ranks, and the Special Branch used the occasion to misinform the Cabinet that the IRSP were responsible for the Kildare robbery.
A smear campaign against Seamus Costello and the IRSP by the gardai without any evidence was launched and was assisted by the media.
Osgur Breathnach and Brian McNally were sentenced to 12 and nine years respectively. Nicky Kelly now a member of the Labour Party was sentenced in his absence.
A national and international campaign began for the release of the IRSP Three, and 17 months later, in May 1980, Brian and Osgur were freed. The Court of Criminal Appeal to date has given no reason for its decision to free Osgur and Brian. Nicky Kelly was imprisoned on his return to Ireland and later freed.
Is history repeating itself?
Could it be that the Irish and English Government's are playing out the same game plan to undermine the position of Sinn Fein and its leadership?
With what occurred during the investigation of the Great Train Robbery in Kells a frame-up, remains a possibility that must be taken seriously.
Is it possible that the increased mandate of Sinn Fein and the popularity of its leadership is what is behind the naming of the IRA as responsible for the Northern Bank raid and the unsubstantiated accusation that the leadership of Sinn Fein had advance knowledge of this impending heist?
Draw your own conclusions.