The Five Demands

No need for Irish government to say sorry for IRA: Gerry Adams (Belfast Telegraph)

Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams has knocked back calls for the Irish government to apologise for the emergence of the IRA in the 1970s.

His statement came shortly before the Assembly passed a DUP motion by a single vote calling for the Irish government to apologise for its alleged role in the Troubles.

The motion was presented by Gregory Campbell, who said dealing with the past was “has been fraught with difficulty in recent years”.

“We are not asking him [Taoiseach Enda Kenny] to apologise for the actions of the Provos, but we are saying to Mr Kenny and to the Irish Republic’s Government: you acted as a midwife at the birth of the Provo monster that we had to deal with for 30 years,” he said.

“It took 30 years to defeat and disarm that monster, but eventually that was accomplished.

“We now want to try to bring closure to many people who suffered as a result of those 30 years, and we want you, Mr Kenny, to acknowledge the events of your predecessor government and Taoiseach and accept that the government played a part in that emerging force and apologise for it.

“We would then close the book and move on.”

An amendment from Ulster Unionist MLA Danny Kennedy noting “the apologies from the United Kingdom government in relation to the Bloody Sunday and Claudy bombing” was passed.

The amended motion was passed by 47 votes to 46, with the SDLP and Sinn Fein opposing.

Earlier, Mr Adams said it was spurious for First Minister Peter Robinson to demand a formal acknowledge-|ment that the Republic’s authorities should have cracked down on the terror group in its infancy.

“The IRA is not the creation of any Dublin government,” said Mr Adams, now a Sinn Fein TD in the Republic.

“I don’t think it has any apologies to make.”

Unionists have argued the Irish government should have intervened in its early activity in the Republic to limit the violence.

Mr Adams insisted there was no connection between the Irish government and the IRA.

The Irish deputy premier, Tanaiste Eamon Gilmore, insisted the Irish government worked hard to combat the IRA throughout the Troubles.

“Successive Irish governments worked very hard to crack down, and very successfully crack down, on the IRA and on terrorist organisations,” he said.

Background

The sole survivor and families of victims of the IRA’s Kingsmills massacre last week met Taoiseach Enda Kenny, calling for him to say sorry for successive Irish governments’ failure to do more to solve the crime. Mr Kenny was given a graphic account of the ambush in south Armagh in 1976 in which 11 Protestant men were shot. Ten died.

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