Anyone who has any influence on any paramilitary organization should use it to bring about an end to terrorism. The Taoiseach couldn't have been more pointed in his remarks this weekend. Gerry Adams may have condemned the Madrid massacre in the strongest terms, but the pressure is intensifying. Sinn Féin has, as one government source put it, got to "lose the army."
That was already the agreed position of the two governments, and was always going to be the core of their statements after their meeting at Farmleigh on Thursday. The carnage in Spain put it in the most somber of contexts, that of "paramilitarism in all its forms."
On this issue, it hardly matters whether Al Quaida or ETA were the perpetrators. The fact is, the IRA has a history of murdering civilians in bomb attacks not unlike those planted in Madrid. It retains the ability to do it again. There was a terrible poignancy about the response to the bombs by people in Omagh. Among those killed in the Real IRA's 1998 bomb in the Tyrone town were visitors from Madrid.
Back in the 1970's the Basque separatist paramilitaries of ETA provided the IRA with handguns, and throughout the years of "armed struggle" Sinn Féin and ETA's political wing, Herri Batasuna, maintained strong links. The Basque separatists send delegates to Sinn Féin's Ard Fheiseanna. In 1998, the Sinn Féin president urged ETA to follow the IRA's example and "arrive at the same configuration of forces as we have built here during the years of strife."
The Al Quaida atrocities of 9/11, likewise condemned by Adams, resulted in pressure being applied to the republican movement by the US, British and Irish governments. Unionists, inevitably, demanded that the "war on terrorism" be brought to the IRA.
The Republican movement doesn't respond well to such pressure. Adams put out a morose statement as he departed for the US on Friday for the St Patrick's day formalities (festivities is just the wrong word, nowadays). The "difficulties" in the North weren't just about "paramilitarism and the unionist commitment to inclusive politics," he said. There was a third problem – "the refusal of the governments to deliver on their obligations."
People shouldn't underestimate, he warned, "the lack of confidence among republicans about the governments' commitment to the Good Friday Agreement." It is increasingly difficult to find evidence of anyone's commitment to the poor old Agreement. The SDLP valiantly defends it, but given the decline in that party's fortunes, it is hard to see this as much of an advertisement. The DUP and Sinn Féin both appear more interested in wiping out their rivals in elections than in actually governing the North.
It was UUP leader, David Trimble, who dramatically pulled out of the deal we were led to believe had been done last Spring. At that point, the two governments were willing to accept that the republican movement had, finally, done, or committed itself to doing, what was required of it under the Joint-Declaration. There were meant to be acts of completion all round.
The UUP appears to be on the point of moving further into the anti-agreement camp, with the bizarre prospect of Reg Empey taking over from Trimble as party leader, in the interests of party unity. Since it is Jeffrey Donaldson's old sidekick, David Burnside, who is pushing for this move, backed by grim old Jim Molyneaux, it can only be seen as a step back from any realistic version of powersharing.
The UUP and DUP meanwhile continue to try to outdo one another in their indignation over efforts to get catholics into the police. Both parties want the overwhelmingly protestant police force to remain so. Recent figures released by the British show that last year loyalists carried out 7 murders along with many other acts of violence. Last week saw several sectarian attacks by loyalists, including an assault on a 12 year old child in Derry.
Blair and Ahern stood together at Farmleigh condemning terrorism and demanding that it be rooted out. But it is worth bearing in mind that it isn't just the people of Omagh whose harrowing memories will have been revived by the Madrid massacre. The survivors of the Dublin- Monaghan bombs in 1974 will have had similarly traumatic feelings.
Remember that Ahern's stated reason for opposing a public inquiry was that it couldn't work because the British wouldn't co-operate. Remember that Britain's refusal to co-operate left Judge Henry Barron unable to follow strong leads towards evidence of collusion between British security forces and loyalist paramilitaries in the atrocities.
Blair said during his Irish press conference that everyone knew what had to be done and that "it isn't a very complicated task." He is wrong, and he knows it.
