Ahern 'always assumed Adams was IRA member'

national | rights, freedoms and repression | news report Thursday February 26, 2004 17:41 by John Meehan

For once, Bertie is speaking the truth.

Will Sinn Féin and its supporters claim this is a "securocrats" plot designed to destabilise the Good Friday Agreement?

For once, Bertie is speaking the truth.

Will Sinn Féin and its supporters claim this is a "securocrats" plot designed to destabilise the Good Friday Agreement?

Other interested people should consider these implications - if you agree that the SF leader has repeated a blatant lie for years, why take on trust anything that Sinn Féin or other parts of the republican movement (for example the IRA) say about similar contentious matters?

From the Irish Times site :

Ahern 'always assumed Adams was IRA member'
Last updated: 26-02-04, 15:53

The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, said today he always assumed Sinn Féin leader Mr Gerry Adams was a member of the IRA.

Mr Ahern said he would be surprised if Mr Adams had not been a member of the group, given his prominent role in negotiations involving the republican movement.

He said he did not know what Mr Adams's current relationship with the IRA was, but people would be interested to know.

"I always assumed that he was (a member of the IRA), I think I would be surprised if he wasn't," he said.

"He hardly became one of the chief negotiators back at the time of Lenadoon if he hadn't some fairly close association," Mr Ahern added.

But Mr Ahern said he wasn't particularly interested in Mr Adams's past: "What I'm more interested in is what is happening now."

"I think Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness have a key role to play, they have moved the IRA and the republican movement from a situation where they were deeply embedded in violence and brought them fairly close to the path of peace and political stability," he said.

Mr Adams has always denied he was ever a member of the IRA.