THE Sinn Fein president, Mr Adams, last night said that he still believed the IRA denial of involvement in the killing of Det Jerry McCabe. He was to the claim by the commissioner, Mr Patrick Cullingan that the IRA was to blame.
Mr Adams was talking to reporters on his way into a Sinn Fein meeting in Dublin. Asked why he could not use the word "condemn" when speaking of the garda's death, he replied "I have been very, very clear and very, we focused in how I have denied this killing. It was wrong. In my view, it was completely and utterly wrong. I have renounced it and I have repudiated it, and my sense, in the first instance, is for Garda McCabe's family.
"In the second instance, it's to try and meet this development in a measured way, because part of my chore is to help to rebuild the peace process. And can I say that sections of the media, especially the Dublin Sunday print media, were quite scurrilous in their efforts to link Sinn Fein to this killing.
"I can understand public concern and I can also understand the position of the Government, but those who have opportunistically tried to undermine the integrity of Sinn Fein on the back of this killing, and to undermine our role in the peace process, do no service to their own position or to the prize of a lasting peace in this country."
Asked for his reaction to Mr Culligan's remarks, he said "My position is as I've outlined it just there a moment ago. I think this is the fourth occasion I have done it, and RTE chose yesterday not to carry my comments for some reason which is beyond me. My position remains exactly the same, that what happened was wrong."
Asked if he still accepted the IRA's denial of involvement, Mr Adams said. Well, the IRA leadership position on these matters has a certain integrity and has for a very long time proven to be the correct one.
He was asked if his reference to the IRA leadership" meant he was suggesting there were stray elements of the IRA who had carried out the Adare raid without the leadership's authorisation.
"Well I'm not going to get into any of that". I'm just stating the case that, in the past, when it was in many ways very unpopular for the IRA to claim responsibility for actions, they did so."
If he accepted that the IRA was not involved in the killing, and, that perhaps it was some criminal gang, why did he not use the word "condemn"?
"Whatever the case, my position is, and whoever was involved in it, that I believe the IRA. I, would still make the case that I have made, that what happened was wrong and that I repudiate and renounce it. Now, what ends up is almost a semantical trivialisation of this man's death because I don't use the words `I condemn and I use the words I renounce' or I use the words `I repudiate'. How much stronger do I have to put the case when I say that it was totally and utterly wrong and that I renounce and that I repudiate it?"
The point was made to Mr Adams that, in the past, he had accused the British government of playing with words, so could it not be said, quite fairly, that he was doing the same? Why did he not use the word "condemn", as the Taoiseach had asked?
"I have made my position quite clear. People have to make their own judgment on it and I have to use the English language formulations which I think, in the first instance, describe accurately my personal feeling, and also the broad feelings of our party, and secondly which fit into the larger jigsaw of trying to move this entire process forward."
Asked if he was any closer to requesting the IRA leadership to call a ceasefire, Mr Adams replied "I'm not going to speculate on where we are on that tonight, any more than I would have yesterday, but be assured that that is the single focus of this Sinn Fein leadership." He had remained focused on the need to restore the peace process despite the present controversy and the very snide" attacks on Sinn Fein.