Irish minister accuses Adams of IRA role
A leading member of the Irish government has accused Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams of being a leading member of the ruling council of the IRA.
Justice Minister Michael McDowell said Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams, chief negotiator Martin McGuinness and Martin Ferris, Sinn Fein TD for the constituency of Kerry North in the Republic’s parliament, were among the seven members of the Army Council.
Mr Adams has admitted to being a former member of the IRA in the past, but all three have denied any current involvement. Allegations linking the three men with the IRA have been made before, but Mr McDowell is the first senior politician to make a direct allegation.
McDowell told Irish radio Today FM: “We are talking about a small group of people including a number of elected representatives who run the whole movement.
“We are talking about Martin McGuinness. We are talking about Gerry Adams. We are talking about Martin Ferris and others.”
Irish foreign minister Dermot Ahern said he too was of the view that Sinn Fein and the IRA were “interlinked”, describing the entities as “two sides of the one coin”.
And Irish defence minister Willie O’Dea told the Dublin-based Sunday Independent: “We are no longer prepared to accept the farce that Sinn Fein and the IRA are separate. They are indivisible.
“We can no longer turn a blind eye to criminality and the close links between Sinn Fein and the IRA,” he said.
But Mr McGuinness dismissed the allegations.
“What he (McDowell) has alleged is totally and absolutely false. It is not true and I reject it.”
During an address in Strabane, County Tyrone, at a service for three IRA men – Michael Devine, David Devine and Charlie Breslin, who were shot dead by the SAS 20 years ago – Mr Adams distanced his party from criminality in any form.
“No Republican worthy of the name can be involved in criminality of any kind. If any are they should be expelled from our ranks.
“We are not involved in criminality and we will not tolerate such behaviour. Our opponents know that. But some of them can barely disguise their glee at the recent turn of events. There has been trial by media.”
The statements came after Irish police seized over £2.3 million linked to an IRA money-laundering ring.
Police are examining the loot to see if it came from the £26.5 million Northern Bank heist in Belfast in December, which the IRA has been accused of perpetrating.
A report by the Independent Monitoring Commission pinpointed the IRA for carrying out the robbery and claimed Sinn Fein “sanctioned” the heist.
Meanwhile, Northern Ireland’s chief constable Hugh Orde said the £50,000 from the Northern Bank robbery – found at a sports club in Belfast on Friday – was “planted” to divert attention away from the probe into IRA money laundering.
