Sinn Féin continue with their policy of denial [of reality… – Ed], although Gerry Kelly has come closest to acknowledging that reality according to this RTÉ report
Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, Mr Kelly said based on the political evidence over the past ten years, the IRA has not been active and therefore does not exist in the circumstances that people are talking about.
Hmmm… Meanwhile, the governments continue to make excuses. From an Irish Independent report yesterday
Earlier this year, in a letter to Sinn Féin, Comm O’Sullivan said gardai have no intelligence or information to suggest the IRA was maintaining its military structure.
But speaking this afternoon at the Michael Collins Commemoration in Beal na Blath, Cork, [Irish Government Justice Minister] Ms Fitzgerald said: “Let me be clear the security assessment by the Chief Constable and the Garda Commissioner is the same.”
“Clearly everything is investigated on an ongoing basis and the IRA is a proscribed organisation and we have the Special Criminal court, we have people been charged if they are involved in criminal activity or terrorist activity of any sort North or South and that will continue,” she added.
…
Asked if the Provisional IRA still operated in Ireland, Ms Fitzgerald said: “That’s a question that can be answered in a whole variety of ways.” [added emphasis throughout]
“The truth is they don’t exist as a terrorist organisation, as a military organisation in the South and the North they are proscribed organisation so if there was any evidence they would be prosecuted they would be investigated,” she added.
And the Northern Ireland Secretary of State, Theresa Villiers, has told the BBC
A police belief that the Provisional IRA still exists did not come as a surprise to the government, the Northern Ireland Secretary has said.
Theresa Villiers said in her time in office she had been aware some of its structures remain in place.
But she said there was no evidence the Provisional IRA was involved in any paramilitary or terrorist activity.
…
Ms Villiers said that “[It] didn’t come as a surprise to me”.
“My understanding is, very much in line with that of the chief constable, that a number of the organisational structures of the Provisional IRA still exist but that there is no evidence it’s involved in terrorism or paramilitary activity,” she said. [added emphasis throughout]
As, I’m sure, the NI Secretary of State told the US administration last month… [But is it involved in murder? – Ed] Well, according to the Chief Constable…
