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Northern Ireland government at risk of collapse over Hyde Park bomb ruling Northern Ireland government at risk of collapse over Hyde Park bomb ruling
(about 4 hours later)
Northern Ireland's power-sharing government is under threat of collapse after the first minister, Peter Robinson, warned he would resign unless there was a judicial review into how the case against a suspected IRA Hyde Park bomber collapsed. Government ministers were working frantically on Wednesday night to save Northern Ireland's power sharing settlement following the collapse of the Hyde Park bombing trial. The Northern Ireland secretary, Theresa Villiers, was meeting the first minister, Peter Robinson, urging him not to pull down the devolved institutions in protest at secret amnesties for IRA fugitives.
Robinson and the Democratic Unionists – the largest party in the region – have come under fire from grassroots unionists over their continuation in government with Sinn Féin since revelations in the Old Bailey on Tuesday that secret letters from the Northern Ireland Office gave a de facto amnesty to 187 IRA fugitives or so-called "on the runs". Robinson warned that he would resign as first minister unless there is a judicial review into how the case against suspected IRA Hyde Park bomber John Downey collapsed. His resignation would trigger the collapse of the devolved five-party coalition dominated by Robinson's Democratic Unionist Party and Sinn Féin.
The decision to free John Downey in court on Tuesday has created the most dangerous political crisis at Stormont since devolution was restored and a five-party coalition regional government was formed in 2007. The DUP leader said: "We are not on the brink of a crisis – we are in a crisis. This is a crisis." He said the scheme had created "a crisis of confidence that the people of Northern Ireland will have on the policing and judicial processes. And they are right to be angry".
Robinson called for all the letters sent out to be rescinded and "full disclosure" to be made of what had happened. The judge's decision to free Downey in the Old Bailey on Tuesday has resulted in the most dangerous political destabilisation at Stormont since devolution was restored in 2007. Robinson and the DUP have come under fire from grassroots unionists over their continuation in government with Sinn Féin since revelations in court that secret letters from the Northern Ireland Office gave a de facto amnesty to 187 IRA fugitives or so called "on the runs", including Downey.
"I am not prepared to be kept in the dark by Her Majesty's government about matters relevant to Northern Ireland," he said. His DUP colleague and North Belfast MP Nigel Dodds said the amnesties, kept secret from unionists in negotiations leading up to the 2006 St Andrew's Agreement, would have "very, very serious implications for Northern Ireland devolution".
"I want a full judicial inquiry to find out who knew, when they knew and what they knew. I want to know who they are and what crimes they are believed to have committed." Downey, from Co Donegal, had been charged with the murders of four soldiers who died in the Hyde Park bomb in 1982, after his arrest at Gatwick Airport last year. He strongly denied all the charges put to him and pointed out that he was a strong backer of the peace process.
The first minister said he felt deceived by the government, and if he and the former DUP leader Ian Paisley had known about this, they would not have entered into a power-sharing government with Sinn Féin in 2007. The case against him collapsed after it emerged in court that he had a letter from 2007 that mistakenly suggested he was immune from prosecution over the Hyde Park atrocity.
"I am not prepared to be a stooge for Westminster, who keep secrets on matters which are now devolved to Northern Ireland," he said. Deputy first minister and Sinn Fein negotiator Martin McGuinness appealed for unionists to "calm down" over the controversy saying "no sensible person will thank anyone for threatening these institutions". His party colleague Gerry Kelly, who bombed the Old Bailey in 1973, accused unionists of "electioneering" over their threats to pull out of the regional government. Kelly said the letters to the "on the runs", which also include high profile IRA fugitives such as Sinn Fein's former press director Rita O'Hare, had been a pragmatic and necessary move to push the peace process forward.
David Cameron has condemned the actions that led to the collapse of the case against Downey as a "dreadful mistake". Security sources in Northern Ireland told the Guardian the "on the runs" scheme was part of negotiations aimed at winning support within the IRA for the decommissioning of its arms – a key unionist demand during talks leading up to a political settlement.
The prime minister told the Commons the letter giving Downey a false assurance that he was not wanted by British police over the IRA attack should never have been sent and a rapid factual review would be carried out to make sure "this cannot happen again". But even strong supporters of the peace process such as former deputy first minister and Foyle MP for the nationalist SDLP Mark Durkan criticised the covert nature of the deal for IRA "on the runs". In a pointed reference to former Labour Northern Ireland secretary Peter Hain, Durkan told the House of Commons the deal had "proved that some of us were right when we warned the right honourable member for Neath [Peter Hain] and others that they were blighting the peace process with their penchant for side deals, pseudo-deals, sub-deals, shabby deals and secret deals – which are now doing major damage to the process more widely."
"But whatever happens we have to stick to the principle that we are a country and a government under the rule of law." Before the crucial meeting with Robinson, Villiers said: "I do hope, despite the long shadow this case is likely to cast, that the Northern Ireland parties will continue to work together to see if a solution can be found to the issues of the past."
Cameron said it was "absolutely shocking" that Downey was not going to be tried for the bombing. Loyalist paramilitaries have also entered the controversy with the political wing of the Ulster Defence Association demanding that all historical Troubles-related cases involving loyalists and members of the security forces be scrapped. The West Belfast Branch of the UDA-aligned Ulster Political Research Group said all loyalists and security force members caught up in historical inquiries should be granted amnesties. The UDA and the Ulster Volunteer Force along with their political allies have claimed that investigations into past Troubles-related crimes have focused in the main on loyalist groups as well as the security forces with the authorities less inclined to pursue ex-IRA members over unsolved murders from the conflict.
He said: "I completely understand the depth of anger and concern that people will feel right across this country about the appalling events that happened in 1982 and the fact the person responsible is now not going to be appropriately tried.
"Of course, that is absolutely shocking and our first thought should be with those 11 soldiers and their families and their friends.
"It may have happened 32 years ago but anyone who has lost someone in a situation like that will mourn them today as if it happened yesterday."
Families of the victims of the bloody 1982 attack, in which four soldiers died, said they felt "devastatingly let down" by the decision.
Earlier Robinson's DUP colleague and North Belfast MP, Nigel Dodds, said the deal, which was kept secret from unionists in negotiations leading up to the 2006 St Andrew's agreement, would have "very, very serious implications for Northern Ireland devolution".
His colleague, the East Londonderry MP Gregory Campbell, said the DUP would not have gone into power sharing with Sinn Féin after the St Andrew's agreement if they had known of the scheme that gave a de facto get-out-of-jail card for IRA "on the runs".
"If we had been sitting across the table discussing the possibility of a new system of government and someone had said: 'By the way, here is an essential ingredient without which no deal can be done,' then we would have said: 'Then no deal can be done,'" Campbell said.
The DUP is increasingly concerned that unionist hostility to the deal will inflict huge electoral damage on the party in the forthcoming local and European elections held in the region in May. They are particularly fearful that the hardline Traditional Unionist Voice, led by the barrister and former DUP MEP Jim Allister, will make electoral gains at their expense as unionist voters register their opposition not only to the deal on IRA fugitives but also to sharing power with Sinn Féin.
The Northern Ireland secretary, Theresa Villiers, is to hold emergency talks with the first minister later on Wednesday in an effort to defuse the crisis.
Loyalist paramilitaries have also entered the controversy, with the political wing of the Ulster Defence Association demanding on Wednesday that all historical Troubles-related cases involving both loyalists and members of the security forces be scrapped in light of the Old Bailey revelations. The West Belfast Branch of the Ulster Political Research Group said all loyalists and security force members caught up in historical inquiries should be granted amnesties.
Gerry Kelly, a Sinn Féin junior minister in the power-sharing government and an ex-IRA member who bombed the Old Bailey in 1973, described the letters given to Downey and other IRA "on the runs" as a pragmatic move to secure the peace process. Kelly accused the unionists of electioneering by threatening to pull out of the power-sharing coalition.