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McGuinness visit heightens IRA expectations

ePolitix.com - McGuinness visit heightens IRA expectations

Martin McGuinness has travelled to the US amid reports that he has left the IRA army council.

Sinn Fein's chief negotiator left Dublin on Wednesday to update White House officials and congressmen on the Northern Ireland peace process ahead of an expected IRA statement on its future and weapons decommissioning.

Earlier in the week the Irish justice minister Michael McDowell claimed that McGuinness, party president Gerry Adams and Irish parliament member Martin Ferris, had left the IRA's ruling body.

All have denied ever being members of the army council, but McDowell's move, along with the McGuinness visit, appear to suggest that the long-awaited response to Adams' call for republicans to "embrace democracy" is imminent.

But departing Ireland, McGuinness said the minister's comments were not relevant.

"I'm not interested in that sort of a discussion. I'm more interested in successfully ensuring that the work we are engaged in brings about the full and faithful implementation of the Good Friday agreement," he said.

"The only thing I have to say about Michael McDowell is the less said about Michael McDowell the better."

Statement

The IRA is expected to announce that it is giving up violence for good, possibly including disbanding itself into republican clubs, as well as decommissioning another large tranche of weapons.

That could unlock the latest stage in the peace process, which has been stuck since talks broke down at the end of last year by unionist demands for transparent evidence that weapons have been put beyond use.

Since then the IRA has also been implicated in the Belfast Northern Bank raid and the murder of Catholic Robert McCartney.

However any restoration of the suspended Stormont assembly could also be delayed by unionists' call for Sinn Fein and the IRA to be judged on their actions, rather than words.

McGuinness called for "patience" when pressed on the timing of any statement but said other parties had obligations to the peace process too.

"I hope it is in everybody's interests," he said.

"This is a time of great challenge but it also a time of great opportunity. So, are we up for it? Yes, we are."

July 27, 2005 at 12:02 PM in IRA | Permalink | Top of page | Blog Home