IRA report to be unveiled as coalition rivals square up

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/oct/20/ira-report-northern-ireland-dup-sinn-fein

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A “make or break” report on allegations of continued IRA activity is due that could be decisive in the survival of the power-sharing government in Northern Ireland.

Ahead of its publication on Tuesday, the two main parties in the region – the Democratic Unionists and Sinn Féin – have been trading warnings about its possible implications.

Peter Robinson, the DUP leader and recently resigned first minister, has said unionists would seek to expel Sinn Féin from the power-sharing coalition if the report found evidence that the IRA was still preparing for terrorist activity.

Gerry Adams, the Sinn Féin president, in turn warned the DUP on Monday night against seeking to deny “the rights of citizens who vote for Sinn Féin”.

The report will focus heavily on the murder of ex-Provisional IRA prisoner Kevin McGuigan in August. His killing sparked the current political crisis at Stormont, particularly after George Hamilton, the chief constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI), said individual IRA members killed McGuigan in retaliation for the murder of their IRA colleague Gerard “Jock” Davison in May.

The chief constable stressed that the murder was not sanctioned by the IRA leadership – an assessment that many republican sources and long-term observers regarded as incredulous given the organisation’s reputation for centralised leadership and discipline.

A 47-year-old man remains in police custody in connection with the McGuigan murder.

In response to allegations of ongoing IRA activity, Robinson stepped down as first minister while his DUP ministers have only played a shadow role in the power-sharing administration since the crisis erupted in late summer.Three legal and security experts including Lord Carlile, who has conducted reviews on the UK’s anti-terrorist legislation, were called in to examine the claims of continued IRA structures and role in attacks such as the McGuigan murder. It is they who have drawn up Tuesday’s crucial report and their assessment will be made public by the Northern Ireland secretary, Theresa Villiers, in the House of Commons at about 12.30pm.Sinn Féin continues to insist the IRA has “left the stage” and no longer poses a threat. However, many unionists believe the IRA is still operating in the shadows. Devolution was restored to Northern Ireland in 2007 on the basis that the IRA would dissolve as a paramilitary force and republicans would support the PSNI and the rule of law.

However, one hardline unionist, Jim Allister of the Traditional Unionist Voice Assembly, predicted on Tuesday that the DUP was “mad keen” to get back into full devolved government with Sinn Féin, and the report would give the largest unionist force the excuse to do so.

Allister said: “The farce of repeated resignations and reappointments were perhaps the only cases in history of resignations designed specifically to keep a government afloat rather than ministers resigning on principle.”