GERRY ADAMS and Martin McGuinness were publicly named yesterday as members of the seven-strong “Army Council” that controls the IRA.
Michael McDowell, the Irish Justice Minister, also named Martin Ferris, a Sinn Fein MP in the Dail, as being among the clique that dominates the terrorist group.
Mr McDowell, whose home was fired on by an unidentified gunman last week, said: “We’re talking about a small group of people, including a number of elected representatives, who run the whole [republican] movement. We’re talking about Martin McGuinness, Gerry Adams, Martin Ferris and others.”
Mr McDowell outraged republicans when he said that their balaclavas had “slipped” after the discovery of about £2.6 million in raids in the Irish Republic last week and a series of arrests. Police are seeking to establish if the money can be linked to the theft of £26.5 million from the Northern Bank in Belfast in December, for which the IRA has been blamed.
Mr McDowell has said in the past that the IRA’s Army Council includes “household names”, but the decision to name Mr Adams and Mr McGuinness is a departure for Dublin.
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Two other Irish ministers joined the attack on Sinn Fein yesterday. Dermot Ahern, the Foreign Minister, said that Mr Adams had to recognise that IRA criminality “lies at the root of the crisis in the peace process”. Willie O’Dea, the Defence Minister, said: “We are no longer prepared to accept the farce that Sinn Fein and the IRA are separate. They are indivisible.”
Hugh Orde, the Northern Ireland Chief Constable, dismissed as a republican stunt the discovery of £50,000 in Northern Bank notes in a lavatory at a police sports club in South Belfast. Referring to the money, found in five shrink-wrapped parcels after a tip-off to the police ombudsman, he joked: “I did ask them [the IRA] to give the money back in my first press conference. They’ve started to listen.”
Eight people have been held over the alleged money- laundering; all but one had been released without charge by last night. Don Bullman, 30, of Co Tyrone, has been charged with membership of the Real IRA.
Yesterday Mr McGuinness denied that he, Mr Adams or Mr Ferris were members of the Army Council.
Paul Murphy, the Northern Ireland Secretary, is expected to respond tomorrow to a report recommending sanctions against Sinn Fein by cutting off its Westminster expenses. Its four MPs get about £500,000 per year. Unionists said that the gesture was largely meaningless given the republican movement’s recent windfall.
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Amid speculation that the IRA may abandon its ceasefire to divert attention from Sinn Fein’s political troubles, Albert Reynolds, the former Taoiseach, last night called the situation “very, very dangerous”.
Yesterday Mr Adams, Sinn Fein’s president, attended a republican ceremony saluting the “bravery” of three IRA men killed by the SAS in Strabane 20 years ago. Mr Adams spoke of his pride after watching a wreath being laid at an IRA memorial on behalf of the West Tyrone “brigade”.