A senior Sinn Féin figure told a republican commemoration at Bodenstown in Co Kildare today that his party is 'prepared to do business' with the Rev Ian Paisley's Democratic Unionist Party.
As the governments awaited the IRA's response to Gerry Adams' call for them to commit themselves to purely democratic means, Newry and Armagh MP Conor Murphy would not be drawn on the internal debate taking place within republicanism.
But he told the Rev Ian Paisley's Democratic Unionists that in the event of a groundbreaking move by the IRA, they would be forced to eventually negotiate a deal with Sinn Féin.
During an address to a republican commemoration at Bodenstown, Mr Murphy also said Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain faced an immediate test on how he handled the marching season and accused the Orange Order of heightening tensions.
Referring to rioting in north Belfast which left 29 people injured following an Orange Order parade on Friday night, he said: “Over recent weeks it seems that the Orange Order has taken a decision to increase tensions around the marching issue this summer.
“The only purpose of this is to poison further an already strained political atmosphere. “They have filed for parades along a number of contentious routes and continue to refuse to engage with local communities.
“It is very obvious that a difficult and contentious marching season will not be helpful to efforts to make political progress, whereas a peaceful and quiet summer would have the opposite effect. The Orange Order know this to be the reality also.
“The strategy which they have embarked upon has the potential to undermine efforts to see political progress and many would contend that this is the motivation behind it.
“At a time when the Sinn Fein leadership and others are trying to put the political process back on track and when the IRA has embarked upon a process of internal consultation, it is up to the Orange Order to explain in very clear terms the motivation and purpose of their strategy.”
While Mr Murphy would not comment on the debate taking place within IRA ranks about its future, Sinn Fein's newest MP said it was is clear a positive response would restart the faltering peace process and remove from the DUP their excuse for refusing to engage with his party.
The Newry and Armagh MP said it was possible the Rev Ian Paisley's party may continue to rebuff republicans.
But he told a commemoration for the 18th century Irish revolutionary Wolfe Tone at Bodenstown his party was prepared to do business with the DUP as the largest unionist party.
However Mr Murphy insisted the DUP would have to reciprocate. “At some point the DUP will have to enter the world of real politics,” he said.
“They will have to learn that there is no alternative to sharing power with Irish republicans, that there is no alternative to the all-Ireland architecture of the Good Friday Agreement and that their brand of politics, based on crude sectarianism, bigotry and intolerance, is a political cul-de-sac.
“I am firmly convinced that it is not a matter of if the DUP do a deal but when.
“And while the DUP comes to terms with these political realities, the two governments must push ahead with the agenda of change set out in the Agreement. They have been mandated to do so by the people of Ireland.”
Mr Murphy said Sinn Féin was pressing the governments for progress on the scaling down of military installations, human rights, equality, Irish language issues, policing and justice.
The party, he said, was also focussed on building a united independent Ireland, having produced a green paper on the subject earlier this year.
He noted Fianna Fáil, the Opposition Fine Gael and Labour partie and the SDLP had also said they shared that goal. He called on members of all four parties to sit down with Sinn Féin to work out a strategy for achieving a united Ireland.
“To members of Fianna Fáil, SDLP, Fine Gael and Labour I say, join with us in planning for a new all-Ireland republic,” the Newry and Armagh MP said.
“I call on you to stand up to those, some of whom are in the Irish government, who believe that Ireland stops at the border.”