For 10 years the Irish and British governments consciously ignored republican criminality, hoping that in time the organisation would wean itself off crime and devote its energies to normal democratic politics. The robbery of the Northern Bank, planned and executed with the knowledge of a Sinn Fein leadership that was simultaneously pretending to negotiate in good faith with the governments, proved to be an affront too far. Bertie Ahern, the taoiseach, believes that Gerry Adams, the Sinn Fein president, stabbed him in the back, and Adams is now paying the price for his duplicity.
As Michael McDowell, the Irish minister for justice, said last week, the IRA is a “colossal crime machine” whose leadership is in total control of the military and political wings of republicanism. McDowell’s analysis is clear: there is no split in the republican movement and there is but one leadership. When Adams says that the IRA was not involved in the Northern Bank robbery, and when he says that Sinn Fein is opposed to criminality, he is telling lies. Sinn Fein and the IRA are wedded to criminality and thrive on the proceeds of crime. McDowell says that the balaclava has slipped, and he is right.
The pressure on criminal republicanism cannot relent and the leaders of the “colossal crime machine” must be exposed so that the public has an opportunity to judge Adams and his colleagues for what they are, and not for what they pretend to be. For too long we have tolerated the charade that the Sinn Fein and IRA leaderships are distinct and separate. They are not, and Adams can no longer be allowed to claim a distance that does not exist. He is responsible for the IRA and he must now stand it down and assist the police in purging Ireland of its evil.
There must, too, be political consequences for Sinn Fein’s duplicity. If the Northern Irish assembly were sitting, Sinn Fein’s ministers would have been expelled from the executive as a direct consequence of the Northern Bank robbery. The governments should consider recalling that assembly now and forming an executive that excludes Sinn Fein until such time as the Independent Monitoring Commission deems the party clear of criminal and terrorist connections. That would allow politics to resume in Northern Ireland.
It is a simple equation: if Sinn Fein/IRA abandons the balaclava and the baseball bat, if it turns its back on crime, if it disarms and disbands its terrorists, if it accepts the rule of law and the primacy of the state on both sides of the border, and if it deals openly and honestly with the people of Ireland, then it can take its place alongside other democratic parties.
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If it does not, then it must be hounded and brought to justice by the police forces north and south, and it must be excluded from government. Its inability to recognise the normal facts of democratic life should not mean that life is put on hold for everyone else. If Sinn Fein/IRA will not remove its mask, it must be ripped off. There can be no going back, no double talk, no compromise. The world has changed for Adams and of that he must have no doubt.