Léargas

Many people will be disappointed that the all-party talks broke up without agreement for Christmas. Sinn Féin shares that disappointment. However, it is our view that progress was made and that agreement is possible when the talks recommence. I want to thank Dr. Richard Haass, Meghan O Sullivan, Charlie Landow and their team, and our colleagues in all five parties represented in the talks. The Sinn Féin Ard Chomhairle met on December 23rd at my request and authorised our negotiating team to conclude an agreement with the other parties to be considered by a subsequent meeting of the Ard Chomhairle. That remains our firm intention. For this reason we welcome the return of Richard Haass and Meghan O'Sullivan. Our delegation told the last plenary in the early hours of Christmas Eve that we believed there was the basis for an agreement on the mechanisms proposed to deal with the three issues under consideration. We would like to see some of these strengthened and have made a

  Madiba's Guard of Honour The green rolling grasslands of Qunu were coming alive in the early morning dawn light as we climbed down off the bus last Sunday morning. It had been a three-and-a half-hour journey from the airport at East London, in the Eastern Cape, along dark and twisting roads. Qunu is Madiba’s home and it is where he chose to be buried. As the sun slowly lifted itself above the hills, its light revealed a landscape similar to others I have seen in the west of Ireland. A big blue sky and distant homes scattered across hills. It was here that Madiba was born and had grown up. And it was to Qunu he returned. He was home with his clann after nine days of national mourning in South Africa. Richard McAuley and I had arrived in Pretoria on Thursday. Irish republicans have a long association with the ANC going back many decades. We supported each other in struggle and in our respective efforts to achieve peace. Nelson Mandela and others in the ANC leadership w

The Downing Street Declaration was 20 years old last Sunday. The first draft of this document was written two years earlier by John Hume as part of secret talks between us aimed at developing a strategy that would provide an alternative to armed struggle. Sinn Féin’s objective was to get agreement between the Irish government, ourselves and John Hume on the text of a joint declaration and the mechanisms to give effect to this, and to put in place a broad consensus on the Irish nationalist side, including Irish America, to pursue a policy towards peace and justice and to engage with the unionists on this in order to build a peace process. At that same time alongside the Hume/Adams Talks, Sinn Féin was involved in secret negotiations with John Major’s government, secret negotiations with the IRA, secret negotiations through Fr. Reid with the Irish government, and we were involved in outreach to Irish America and subsequently with the White House. It was a very busy time but

Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams TD speaking in the Dáil this evening on the death of Nelson ‘Madiba’ Mandela said: “ Madiba was a leader who by his courage demonstrated that it is possible to reconcile differences. By his example he showed us that it is possible to build peace out of conflict; something we try to do in our own island; and that a better and more equal future based on fairness is possible, and that unity can be forged out of division.” The Sinn Féin leader who will be travelling to South Africa tomorrow for the funeral of Madiba reminded the Dáil of the close relationship between Irish republicans and the ANC. He said: “In jail for those decades, on Robben Island, Madiba maintained his international perspective. In his cell, in common with all political prisoners, he was allowed as a privilege a calendar on which he marked significant events. On the 5 th May 1981 a simple single line is written: ‘IRA martyr Bobby Sands dies.’ A tribute, hand writ

    I want to extend to the family of President Mandela, to President Zuma and to the people of South Africa, my sincere and heartfelt condolences at the death of Madiba on my own behalf and that of Sinn Féin. The world is in mourning. We have lost our greatest statesman. Madiba was a leader who by his courage demonstrated that it is possible to reconcile differences. By his example he showed us that it is possible to build peace out of conflict; a better and more equal future based on fairness, and unity out of division. In the hard years when the western powers were against him, when he was vilified as a terrorist and a criminal, he kept the faith. He showed perseverance and vision. There are lessons in all of this for us but particularly for the people of the island of Ireland as we continue the necessary and challenging task of building the peace. I first saw Nelson Mandela when he visited Dublin in 1990. That was the day the Irish soccer team returned home. When

Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams TD commenting on criticisms of his remarks on the Smithwick report said: “ I am very conscious that at the heart of this issue are two bereaved families. I did not need reminded of this by any of my political opponents and I am concerned, as I was during the Newstalk interview, not to say anything which detracts from that or which causes any further hurt. That was never my intention. What I said reflects what is recorded by Justice Smithwick. So those who attack me are at odds with what is contained in the Smithwick report. It is nonsense to suggest that I was blaming the two RUC officers for their own deaths. Everyone knows the IRA was responsible. That was never in question. There is also no question but that the Smithwick report records serious concerns about the security arrangements for RUC officers travelling to Dundalk through South Armagh. These include the fact that information about possible IRA attacks on RUC officers crossing the

Eight years after it was established the report of the Smithwick Tribunal was finally published on Tuesday evening.    I want to commend Justice Smithwick for his hard work of many years. I am very mindful that at the heart of the Smithwick Inquiry there are two bereaved families and I hope the report helps bring some measure of closure for them. I also want to commend the Irish government for fulfilling its obligation under the Weston Park Agreement. The onus is now on the British government to move speedily to holding the promised inquiry into the murder of human rights lawyer Pat Finucane. The Smithwick Tribunal was established as a result of an agreement in the negotiations in Weston Park in 2001 between the British and Irish governments. Canadian Judge Peter Cory was asked to look at the killing of Pat Finucane; Robert Hamill; Rosemary Nelson; Billy Wright; Judge Gibson and his wife; and RUC Chief Superintendent Harry Breen and RUC Superintendent Robert Buchanan.