Clergy may see IRA disarmament

-17/11/04

Ten years after the IRA declared its first ceas


Clergy may see IRA disarmament

-17/11/04

Ten years after the IRA declared its first ceasefire in Northern Ireland, the armed republican group has said that it may allow Catholic and Protestant church representatives, probably clergy, to witness any further destruction of its arsenal of weapons.

The inclusion of a Protestant minister in the latest phase of Republican decommissioning would be intended as a confidence-building measure towards the provinceís majority Unionist community, who wish to maintain British rule over the six counties.

Sinn Fein, the nationalist political party for whom the IRA has been a military wing for many years, has sought to disavow violence and to establish itself in the democratic mainstream. It has made significant political gains by doing this.

Some in the Unionist community have welcomed this latest concession by the IRA, but hardliners such as the Rev Ian Paisley of the Democratic Unionist Party, the largest anti-nationalist political grouping since the last elections, have already denounced it as ‘not enough’.

Sinn Fein says that the offer ‘has not yet been confirmed’. But it has already been reported on the BBC and in The Independent newspaper.

Both Catholic and Protestant grassroots churches played a significant and largely unpublicised role in creating conditions on the ground for the historic Good Friday peace agreement which opened up the possibility of demilitarisation and democratic change.

However in recent months the political process towards sustainable peace in Northern Ireland has stalled.

The latest IRA disarmament move comes after the recent cessation of operations by the UDA, the most influential Unionist paramilitary group in the disputed territory.


Clergy may see IRA disarmament

-17/11/04

Ten years after the IRA declared its first ceasefire in Northern Ireland, the armed republican group has said that it may allow Catholic and Protestant church representatives, probably clergy, to witness any further destruction of its arsenal of weapons.

The inclusion of a Protestant minister in the latest phase of Republican decommissioning would be intended as a confidence-building measure towards the provinceís majority Unionist community, who wish to maintain British rule over the six counties.

Sinn Fein, the nationalist political party for whom the IRA has been a military wing for many years, has sought to disavow violence and to establish itself in the democratic mainstream. It has made significant political gains by doing this.

Some in the Unionist community have welcomed this latest concession by the IRA, but hardliners such as the Rev Ian Paisley of the Democratic Unionist Party, the largest anti-nationalist political grouping since the last elections, have already denounced it as ‘not enough’.

Sinn Fein says that the offer ‘has not yet been confirmed’. But it has already been reported on the BBC and in The Independent newspaper.

Both Catholic and Protestant grassroots churches played a significant and largely unpublicised role in creating conditions on the ground for the historic Good Friday peace agreement which opened up the possibility of demilitarisation and democratic change.

However in recent months the political process towards sustainable peace in Northern Ireland has stalled.

The latest IRA disarmament move comes after the recent cessation of operations by the UDA, the most influential Unionist paramilitary group in the disputed territory.