GOVERNMENT RESPONSE:THE REAL IRA and other paramilitary groups opposed to the peace process have no mandate for their violent actions, Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs Eamon Gilmore has said.
The Labour Party leader said he was “absolutely disgusted” by the Real IRA threat, issued at an Easter Rising commemoration in Derry, to kill further members of the Police Service of Northern Ireland in addition to the late Constable Ronan Kerr.
“The sight of somebody appearing in a mask and menacingly threatening Catholics who join the PSNI, nationalists who join the PSNI, that they will be killed, threatening the governments and threatening the people of this country, that belongs to the past and that is the past,” he said.
Mr Gilmore added that the dissidents are tiny groups who have already done enormous damage, most recently when Constable Ronan Kerr was killed. The Labour leader added that they have no support in any part of Ireland or in any part of the Irish community, North or South.
“They have no mandate. The arrangements in this country have been settled by the Good Friday Agreement. It has been voted on by the people of this country and nobody has any right to challenge that in the way that these people are doing. The Government is absolutely determined that they will not succeed and the gardaí will work with the PSNI in bringing them to justice,” he said.
The Tánaiste added that both governments would work together and would work with the Northern Ireland Executive and Assembly to build the political institutions and advance progress.
He said the kind of threats that were made are menacing and have no place in the Ireland of today.
The Minister was asked if the Government would be introducing any extra security measures to deal with the paramilitary threat.
“There are additional security measures that are already in place and the gardaí have been working very closely with the PSNI and indeed have been working very successfully with the PSNI. The Government has reviewed the security situation and we have discussed that with the Garda Commissioner. We are absolutely determined that these people are not going to succeed,” he said.
On the possible role of intermediaries, Mr Gilmore added that if anybody could persuade dissidents from the path that they are on and from the threats that they are making, then he would welcome this and hoped that would be helpful.
The Tánaiste was accompanied by US congressman Richard Neale who said: “My credentials on the North are perhaps unmatched in the United States and there can be no room in a representative democracy for somebody standing with a mask, making threats.”
He said the idea of a representative democracy is to make sure there are no masks. “The Assembly is up and running, there are elections on May 5th and, not to miss the point of just how far we’ve come, part of the distance that we have all travelled has been in putting together a representative democracy, where people are free to use the crucible of politics to make a point and then to accept negotiation.”
He asked who is more Irish than John Hume or Gerry Adams or Martin McGuinness? The congressman said they would make the argument that “there is no room in the democracy that is in place for this sort of activity”.
Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin described the dissident groups as “deluded criminals”.
Mr Martin said the threat from the Real IRA is further evidence that terrorist gangs have no respect for the sovereign wishes of the Irish people.
“These deluded criminals fail to comprehend the true meaning of republicanism and quite clearly have nothing but contempt for this country and its people.”
The Fianna Fáil leader added that the island remains united in its revulsion for those who killed Constable Ronan Kerr. The public outrage after Constable Kerr’s murder proved that this country was unwilling to be dictated to by criminals, he said.
Mr Martin said that any terrorist group that believed it could return Ireland to the violence of the past was mistaken. Attempts to attack the peace process would not be tolerated and would not work. “We must continue to send out a strong and clear message that the PSNI, in close co-operation with the gardaí, is a force for good on this island.”
