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After 35 years of bombs and blood a quiet voice ends the IRA's war

Angelique Chrisafis, Ireland correspondent
Friday July 29, 2005
The Guardian

The IRA yesterday declared that its war against Britain was over. Even in the long debased hyperbole of historic moments in the Northern Ireland peace process, this was a monumental announcement.
Its statement, unprecedented in its clarity, was delivered on a DVD by a soft-spoken IRA volunteer called Seana Walsh, who at 50 is typical of the now middle-aged rank and file of the organisation. He had spent 21 years in prison and was one of the IRA "blanket men" during the hunger strike and dirty protests in the Maze prison in the 1970s and 1980s.

Standing in front of an Irish tricolour, he announced that from 4pm a "formal end to the armed campaign" had been ordered. All IRA units were ordered to "dump arms". The IRA vowed to complete its long-running decommissioning process as quickly as possible by "verifiably [putting] its arms beyond use".

The retired Canadian general John de Chastelain will oversee the final acts of decommissioning, which could be completed within a month.

Although the statement did not address the thorny issue of criminality - which has seen the IRA blamed for December's £26.5m Northern Bank robbery and the murder of the Catholic father Robert McCartney - it makes it clear that "volunteers must not engage in any other activities whatsoever".

Eleven years after the first ceasefire, the British and Irish governments hailed it as the key that could unlock the final course of the peace process.

In a highly choreographed press conference in a south Dublin hotel, the Sinn Féin leader, Gerry Adams, described the statement as a "truly momentous and defining point in the search for a lasting peace with justice" and said the IRA had made a unilateral "magnanimous, principled and generous" move.

But asked why the IRA did not specifically say it would end all criminal activities, he shot back: "What part of 'any other activities whatsoever' do people not understand?"

He made a dramatic appeal to the hardline Democratic Unionist leader, Ian Paisley, who has refused to sit down at Stormont with Sinn Féin while the IRA still exists. "Let's talk, let's engage, let's not let this opportunity be wasted," he said.

Mr Adams's take on this historic moment was also clearly aimed at hearts and minds in the Irish Republic.

With Sinn Féin's vote on the rise, it stands a real chance of soon having a place in a coalition Dublin government if the IRA proves true to its word. Mr Adams was clearly signalling that the ultimate prize was simultaneously holding power across Ireland in a power-sharing assembly in the north and a coalition government in the south.

Tony Blair said the IRA announcement was a "step of unparalleled magnitude ... The statement is of a different order than anything before. It is what we have striven for and worked for since the Good Friday agreement".

The taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, said it was "a great day for Ireland and Britain" but in a joint statement with Mr Blair he cautioned that the IRA's words must be "borne out by actions".

The Northern Ireland secretary, Peter Hain, writing in the Guardian, said: "In this new environment it will be the responsibility of unionism to respond positively.

"Provided that the actions have followed the words and the IRA is locked into a democratic and peaceful path, then we will want early negotiations towards the resumption of shared government through a resurrected Northern Ireland assembly."

Already last night difficulties were rearing up.

Sinn Féin refuses to recognise the ceasefire watchdog, the Independent Monitoring Commission, which will verify if the IRA has indeed ceased military operations, punishment attacks and all forms of robbery and smuggling it is alleged to be involved in.