CARDINAL Cahal Daly has highlighted a conciliatory aspect of the IRA's Easter message The IRA statement largely interpreted as a signal that the renewed campaign of violence would be maintained contained "some hope", he said.
In a BBC radio interview yesterday Dr Daly also called on the IRA to restore its ceasefire.
He declared Not only I, but the vast majority of Irish nationalist people, would urge them to do that."
Saying that the British government had placed too many problems in the path of progress during the ceasefire, he added "That is past and this is now. And we must do everything in our power to prepare for all party inclusive negotiations, raising all substantive issues on June 10th."
His own Easter message was one of peace which could only come through negotiation, and that could only happen if all participants got together in the all party talks.
He said that the IRA declaration contained some hope. "Traditionally, at Easter, there is a belligerent statement, making no concessions and pledging victory. This time it is notably different, and they do commit themselves to working for conditions that would make all party talks, without preconditions, possible. And it is, I think, for an Easter message reasonably conciliatory."
He felt that London could now give reassurances that there would genuinely be no preconditions and that all issues not just the decommissioning of terrorist weapons would be on the table simultaneously.
But he stressed that the over whelming majority of the Irish people "would not countenance the beginning of talks without a cessation of violence, without the reinstatement of the ceasefire", adding "In my view, there are better reasons now for the republican movement to reinstate the ceasefire than there were even at the beginning, 17 or 18 months ago, to instate it in the first place.