The president of Republican Sinn Féin, Mr Ruairí Ó Brádaigh, has said that any move by the Provisional IRA to decommission its remaining weapons would amount to a "sell-out". Arthur Beesley reports.
Mr Ó Brádaigh said in his address to the party's ardfheis in Dublin at the weekend that such a development would be "a deed without precedent in Irish history". It was akin to accepting British rule in Ireland, he said.
"The Provo leadership, for its part, has agreed to another act of decommissioning immediately and the surrender of all their remaining military equipment by Christmas." He said it would cease to be "a military body" and would become "an old comrades' association", something which he said "P. O'Neill has not denied".
"Having secured this, the DUP went further and demanded that all decisions by power-sharing Executive ministers and cross-Border bodies should be sanctioned by the Stormont assembly, which is of course Unionist-dominated. The Provisionals would yield on the question of policing - joining the Policing Board and urging their members to join and support the British police in the six counties. Who is to oppose all this sell-out?"
Mr Ó Brádaigh said his party had carried out a "SWOT" analysis of its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. The failure of the Stormont process presented an opportunity, while personnel issues emerged as weaknesses. There were also problems with the leadership.