The Provisional IRA leadership deserves a pat on the back for keeping its hard men in check – a tactical move that has ensured the continued stability of the Irish peace process. When nationalist yobs were giving two-fingered salutes to Sinn Fein during last month’s rioting, the IRA Army Council resisted ordering anyone into republican heartlands to take on the so-called dissidents.
Rank-and-file Provisionals must have been infuriated by media images of senior republicans being verbally abused by masked thugs. It might only have taken a few masked IRA members to appear on nationalist streets for loyalist dissidents, such as the Orange Volunteers, to have resumed their arson attacks on Catholic property.
The Dail, Stormont and Westminster should not underestimate the pressure that mainstream republicans are under to “sort out” the dissident problem. History shows what this can involve. On the night of October 31 1992, the Provisionals used 60 of their members to attack the Irish People’s Liberation Organisation, a splinter group of the Irish National Liberation Army. Leading IPLO activist Samuel Ward was singled out by two IRA gunmen and shot 10 times, with three bullets hitting him in the head. Across Belfast, groups of IRA men attacked and wounded another 10 IPLO members and sympathisers. According to some police reports, rifles were used in kneecappings to maximise the injuries caused to the victims.
However, according to one source in the Police Service of Northern Ireland, IRA action now against republican dissidents might not necessarily endanger the Provisionals’ ceasefire, which has held firm since the mid 1990s.
He said: “We believe it would be easy for the IRA to sneak just a few weapons out of their supposedly sealed bunkers and use them against dissident republicans. The attacks would certainly not be claimed in the name of the Provisionals. They have used cover names in the past.”
Following the 1994 IRA ceasefire, the Provisionals used the cover name Direct Action Against Drugs to attack or murder known or alleged drug barons and drug dealers. And during the Troubles, the IRA used the cover name South Armagh Republican Action Force to unleash sectarian assaults, such as the Kingsmills attack in which 10 Protestant workers were killed, and the Tullyvallen Orange Hall slaughter which claimed the lives of five Orangemen.
INLA chief Dominic “Mad Dog” McGlinchey used the cover name Catholic Reaction Force to carry out the Darkley Mission Hall massacre in south Armagh, in which three Protestant church elders were murdered.
The PSNI source said: “While Sinn Fein has emphasised that it reigns supreme in nationalism at the ballot box, it was clear from the recent Ardoyne and Lurgan riots that dissident republicans ruled major republican heartlands. The television images of a masked dissident youth squaring up to a veteran, influential Provisional republican sent a poignant message to the IRA leadership that these rival dissidents would not bow the knee to verbal orders from senior mainstream republicans.
“The mainstream republican leadership wants to deliver a short, sharp shock to rival dissidents to let them know they are still the big bosses in nationalism. These mainstream republicans do not want a long drawn-out feud with the dissidents. The Provisional leadership wants this sorted out quickly, but does not want to endanger Sinn Fein’s role in the peace process. Any revenge to bring the dissidents to heel will be quick, ruthless and not traced back to the Provisional leadership.”
Although there are about half a dozen separate dissident republican political groups, they do not pose any electoral threat to Sinn Fein.
One of the most influential radical politicians in the Republic of Ireland is Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin, the parliamentary leader of Sinn Fein in the Dail. Regarded as a dove within the republican movement, he was one of the keynote speakers at last month’s Tyrone Volunteers Day in the republican stronghold of Cappagh. County Tyrone is viewed as ripe territory for republican dissidents vehemently opposed to the peace process and Sinn Fein’s current “politics only” strategy.
To prevent defections to dissident political and terrorist groups, Sinn Fein must ensure that leading figures such as Ó Caoláin, who have no links to the IRA, make keynote speeches on nationalist policy at gatherings to honour the republican dead.
People such as Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin, MP Michelle Gildernew, and MLAs Daithi McKay and Michelle O’Neill represent a Sinn Fein more in tune with the genuine separatist movement which its founder, Arthur Griffith, envisaged in 1905 – not apologists for IRA death squads.
For the sake of continued peace in Ireland, we must hope that Sinn Fein’s doves are more than a match for dissident republican hawks.
