UUP to quit Executive as election looms

Posted by Jim on August 26, 2015

The Ulster Unionist Party is set to withdraw its only Minister from the
Stormont Executive on Saturday after party leader Mike Nesbitt
described the current power-sharing agreement as “threadbare”.

The move follows allegations of an unsanctioned involvement by
Provisional IRA members in the killing of Kevin McGuigan, the chief
suspect in the recent murder of former IRA commander Jock Davison.

Nesbitt is to recommend to his party executive that the party should
withdraw its single Executive member, Transport Minister Danny Kennedy,
and form an opposition to the current five-party coalition. He also
attacked their former government partners in the DUP, who he said were
“incapable of delivering for all the people of Northern Ireland”.

He said: “The UUP stretched itself almost to breaking point to bring
forward the Good Friday Agreement in 1998.

“The Ulster Unionist Party remains wedded to our 1998 vision of a fully
peacefully and prosperous society for all our people, including
nationalists, republicans and unionists.”

Claims of PIRA involvement in the killing of Kevin McGuigan, allegedly
as a reprisal for his role in Davison’s murder, have continued despite
PSNI chief George Hamilton stating last weekend that the killing had
not been sanctioned by the Provisional IRA.

Hamilton said that the PIRA was not engaged in “terrorism”, and that
its primary focus was on promoting a peaceful political agenda.
However, he said that the organisation’s structures still existed —
although “significantly changed” or “dissolved” — and that former
members may be engaged in crime.

With elections looming in both jurisdictions, these statements have
paved the way for political attacks on Sinn Fein, both north and south.

Sinn Fein’s Martin McGuinness described today’s UUP decision as being
“more about inter-unionist rivalry” than any “feigned concern” about
Sinn Fein’s commitment to peace, which he insisted was “unequivocal”.

Anti-republican media organisations in the 26 Counties have also sought
to generate anti-Sinn Fein sentiment in response to what they
hysterically described as a “renewed IRA threat” to the state.
Yesterday, Fine Gael’s Minister for Justice Frances Fitzgerald asked
the Garda police commissioner to conduct a “fresh assessment” of the
activities of the the Provisional IRA in light of the reports.

But in recent years a variety of state bodies north and south of the
border, including most recently the Gardai police themselves, have
stated that the PIRA has ceased its armed activities. Former 26 County
Minister for Justice Michael McDowell said this week there had actually
been a decision to encourage an “inert” PIRA to continue to exist and
fade away through natural attrition, rather than risk a rise in
breakaway IRA groups.

Political speculation has now turned to the position of Peter
Robinson’s DUP who will be under pressure from unionist hardliners to
pull their Ministers out of the Executive. Such a move would collapse
the Executive and accelerate the next Stormont Assembly election by
several months.

Speaking on RTE radio, Sinn Fein’s Gerry Kelly said a political crisis
had been artificially created around the difference of opinion that the
Provisional IRA still exists in some form, but not as a military
organisation.

He said there was the possibility that some former members of the IRA
may be involved in criminal activity, but “this is not the IRA, it is
people acting in a criminal way”.

He said the Provisional IRA made a statement ten years ago that it had
“left the stage” and he believes it had.

Sinn Fein TD Brian Stanley also said the PIRA had been “stood down” and
no longer existed, and that any proposed review would show this. Sinn
Fein leader Gerry Adams also emphasised the point this week, altering
one of his most famous statements in the aftermath of the PIRA
ceasefire by stating that “the IRA has gone away, you know”.