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Vol. 73/No. 12      March 30, 2009

 
Ireland: Sinn Fein meets with rightists
in wake of killings of cop, soldiers
 
BY PAUL DAVIES  
LONDON—Two British soldiers were killed by the Real Irish Republican Army (IRA) in Antrim, Northern Ireland, on March 7. Days later a cop was killed by the Continuity IRA in Craigavon. This is the first time a member of the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI), formed in 2001, has been killed by republican forces.

Both groups claiming responsibility for the killings are small splits from the Provisional IRA, which carried out armed attacks for decades in a fight to end British rule of Ireland. The Provisional IRA ordered an end to its attacks in 2005. In 2007 the main Irish nationalist party, Sinn Fein, joined a coalition government with pro-British parties in the Northern Ireland Assembly. Sinn Fein’s support for the PSNI helped pave the way for the coalition government.

The killings were condemned at a joint press conference by Hugh Orde, chief constable of the PSNI; Peter Robinson of the pro-British Democratic Unionist Party; and Martin McGuinness of Sinn Fein.

Orde said, "I have no intention to ask the Army for routine military support, it's not necessary.” British prime minister Gordon Brown commented that there would be "no return to the old days." This theme was echoed by the Financial Times, which said these events “should not lead to even a tiny build-up of British troops.”

McGuinness said those who carried out the killings were "traitors to the island of Ireland," a remark that drew praise from a Financial Times editorial. The London Times noted that McGuinness had “called on republicans to help police to find those who have murdered two soldiers and a policeman.”

For the first time, Sinn Fein leaders attended a funeral for a British cop killed by a republican group. In the wake of the killings party leaders also participated in their first-ever meeting with the Ulster Political Research Group, an organization linked to loyalist paramilitaries.

Taking further advantage of the cop killing, the chairman of the inquiry into the sectarian killing of Robert Hamill announced that cops testifying at the inquiry would be granted temporary anonymity. Hamill, a young Catholic, was beaten to death in 1997 by a loyalist mob in Portadown while cops looked on.  
 
 
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