John Rapley
"IT'S NOT that simple," I could imagine Gerry Adams saying during his American tour as he was repeatedly pressed to finally sever Sinn Fein's ties to the IRA (the Irish Republican Army). Alas for Mr. Adams, the time for complex explanations has probably passed. Besides, as the recent murder of Robert McCartney by IRA thugs seems to indicate, sometimes it is quite simple.
Mr. McCartney was stabbed to death in a bar-room brawl in Belfast earlier this year. IRA members are alleged to be responsible. Yet while there were something like 70 witnesses to the event, none have given evidence to the police that could lead to an arrest. Subsequently, it came to light that Sinn Fein politicians were present at the time. They have since made rather implausible statements that they saw nothing. It has even been alleged that IRA members came and scrubbed the bar clean to eliminate forensic evidence.
NO WITNESSES
It is not surprising that no witnesses have come forth. In some communities of Belfast, the hold of IRA gangs resembles what we see in Kingston garrisons. That isn't surprising. In Roman Catholic communities long marginalised by Protestant governing elites, the IRA sometimes has provided the vigilante justice which citizens feel they cannot get from the state.
However, while fear of - or loyalty to -- the IRA may be preventing witnesses from coming forth, Mr. McCartney's sisters and girlfriend would not be silenced. They have mounted a public campaign calling for justice, and have been getting sympathetic hearings in Dublin, London and now, Washington, DC.
One commentator noted dryly that had they been the McCartney brothers, we would never have heard of them. The IRA would have seen to that by now. Nevertheless, now that the cat is out of the bag, it is unlikely to be wrestled back in.
Yet disentangling Sinn Fein and the IRA - both of which officially precede their name with the title "Provisional " -- is no easy task. In the history of Irish nationalism, which we can take back to at least 1916, there have been several IRAs. There have been several Sinn Feins. And neither of today's is a direct descendant of the original movements which bore those names.
CATHOLIC RESISTANCE
What we today call the IRA emerged from the resurgence of Catholic resistance in the 1960s. Initially, the IRA served as what we might call self-defence brigades in Catholic communities. The movement then adopted a political strategy of attacking British soldiers - and later, British civilians - to try and press their goal of a reunited Ireland. Sinn Fein, in the early days, was the legitimate face of what has always been an illegal organisation.
However, in the 1980s, largely because of the effective political manoeuvring of Gerry Adams, Sinn Fein began to assert itself as a political party. In its early days, it stuck to the " armalite and the ballot box " strategy whereby the threat of the IRA would force the political establishment to pay attention to its Sinn Fein wing.
However, by the 1990s, Sinn Fein was beginning to take on more of its own identity, and had toned down the rhetoric. After the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, it became the principal Catholic Party in Northern Ireland, and further expanded its presence south of the border, in the Irish Republic.
THE GOOD FRIDAY AGREEMENT
The Good Friday Agreement required all militias Catholic and Protestant to disband. But to date, the IRA has dragged its heels, and Mr. Adams has been reluctant to break with the organisation over the matter. One obvious reason is that the IRA and Sinn Fein are so intertwined that it would be organisationally very difficult to pull off.
Beyond that, and not always without reason, Mr. Adams mistrusts the British and Northern Ireland political establishments. He is wary of playing his strongest card - the threat of violence if Sinn Fein's demands are ignored - too soon.
His friends in the IRA have now probably forced the issue, though. Mr. Adams is coming under intense pressure from all the major players in the peace process to pick a side : either in, without the IRA ; or out, with it.
Notwithstanding his political astuteness, he is unlikely to squirm out of making this choice.
John Rapley is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Government, UWI, Mona.
