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Tuesday, April 12, 2005
End of the IRA? Or Just Another Speech?Kevin Toolis has a very perceptive column in the London Times. Common sense tells us that after 30 years at the top of the republican tree Gerry Adams should have a pretty good idea who is on the IRA Army Council. Why doesn’t he just call them up on the phone, rather than make a public speech? How can such a consummate political operator not have the number of each and every IRA gunman somewhere in his contacts book?
The truth is that for decades Northern Irish politics has been built around the lie that Sinn Fein and the IRA are separate entities. But the history books tell a different story. In 1991 Martin McGuinness and Gerry Kelly represented the IRA in secret talks with MI6’s head of counter-terrorism. Today they declare themselves to be mere democratic politicians.
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