SDLP SPELLS IT OUT

Amid the latest bout of crisis talks in Belfast, SDLP leader Alasdair
McDonnell has warned that the Democratic Unionist Party simply don’t
want to work with Catholics.

Dr. McDonnell made the comments at the opening of a new party office in
Glengormley, and the directness of his remarks came as a shock to the
political process.

He said: “The DUP don’t want partnership – they don’t want a taig
[Catholic] about the place. I’m sorry, it’s as brutal as that.

“I’m not divisive, I don’t like to be like that but they, at times,
they’ve made it very clear to us they don’t support the Good Friday
Agreement, they don’t support a lot of the changes that have taken
place.”

The statement brought some straight-talking into a political crisis
which has rumbled on in one form or another for several years.

Earlier this month, DUP acting First Minister Arlene Foster was accused
of being nakedly sectarian when she said her job was to prevent “rogues
and renegades” from the two nationalist parties from taking any
substantive decisions.

Ironically, she accused Mr McDonnell of causing offence to Catholics.

She said: “Alasdair McDonnell should apologise today, not just for an
inaccurate slur on the DUP, but for the offense he will undoubtedly have
caused to many Catholics by referring to them as ‘taigs’.”

She also called for an apology for two of the SDLP’s nationalist
positions: its support for the naming of Raymond McCreesh park in Newry
in honour of the IRA hunger striker; and for the release of political
prisoner and former Sinn Fein leadership figure, Gerry McGeough.

In an interview with the BBC on Friday, Dr McDonnell defended his
comment. He said: “Most of the messages I’m getting are congratulatory
messages telling me it was time somebody told the truth.

“And quite frankly I would make [the comments] all over again because
they have to be said.

“We’ve reached a stage after a couple of weeks of talks that it’s time
to call it as it is, to be honest and tell the truth, and I called it as
I saw it.”

‘TRUTH’

Dr McDonnell also angered Sinn Fein.

He said: “Sinn Fein can’t tell the truth. They just can’t tell the
truth, and they can tell us whatever they like and you’ve examples like
Gerry Adams was never in the IRA and you’ve examples like Martin
McGuinness saying this, that and the other thing. They’re not telling
the truth.”

He said there were “people out there associated with, connected with or
involved in some way – that basically were involved in helping and
supporting the murder of Kevin McGuigan.”

He was referring to accusations that individual members of the
Provisional IRA may have been involved in the killing of McGuigan as
part of a lingering power struggle in republican areas of south and east
Belfast.

‘ELECTORALISM’

Sinn Fein branded the comments as political opportunism. Party MLA Alex
Maskey accused the SDLP leader of using the murder of Kevin McGuigan and
the related murder last May of Jock Davison for electoral purposes.

�The brutal murders of both Gerard Davison and Kevin McGuigan have been
exploited by the unionist parties for their own internal electoral
intentions and Alasdair McDonnell�s scurrilous allegations are clearly
an attempt to move the SDLP onto the same ground to score cheap
political points,” he said.

“That’s where two main parties have let us down over nine years”

His party has also challenged the SDLP and others to “put up or shut up”
when making accusations linking the party to criminal acts.

On Monday, Sinn F�in Deputy First Minister made a strong defence of his
party�s commitment to exclusively peaceful and legal activity.

�I am not putting up with this nonsense anymore,� he said.

�During the course of this morning�s engagement I took those people to
task. I told them if anybody has any information whatsoever about any
party in government being involved in criminality that they should put
it up on the table and, more importantly, they should put it to the PSNI
(Police Service of Northern Ireland).

�In other words I told them it is now time for them to put up or shut
up.�

But the prospect of genuine power-sharing at Stormont appears no closer
this week in a week dominated by the health and finances of DUP leader
Peter Robinson.

Last weekend, Robinson was hospitalised after suffering an adverse
reaction to medication for a heart condition. On Wednesday, his
involvement in the allegedly corrupt ten-figure sale of a property
portfolio owned by the Dublin government’s National Assets Management
Authority (NAMA) also dominated headlines.

None of this diluted his combative nature when dealing with Catholic
politicians in the talks. He said his party has now issued six demands
in the talks, including the establishment of a �permanent� structure to
provide a comprehensive examination and assessment of IRA and loyalist
activity,

“It should have sanctions applied to anybody who breaches it,� he said.

‘PANEL OF EXPERTS’

In a sop to the DUP, three establishment figures were named this week to
head up a “one-off” new monitoring commission.

They were Lord Carlile of Berriew, who previously held the post of
“independent reviewer of national security arrangements in Northern
Ireland”; Rosalie Flanagan, a former top official at Stormont, and
barrister Stephen Shaw; who recently represented US vulture fund
Cerberus, the buyer in the allegedly corrupt sale by NAMA.