Policing, Justice & the "Army Council"
While I've been away over the summer the NI Executive has ground to a halt over the transfer of policing and justice powers from Westminster to Stormont.
I'm sure the two facts aren't linked.
This is ridiculous. Full responsibility for policing and justice should've been transferred ages ago. The result of not doing it is obvious: political stalemate and hundreds of highly-paid people sitting round doing diddly-squat.
Ex-taoiseach Bertie Ahern has spoken up today, expressing understanding for the unionist need for "certainty" that the IRA "Army Council" would remain inactive.
The truth is that the IRA is, and always was, an illegal organisation under every sovereign jurisdiction in Ireland. It's an outlawed bunch of terrorist killers running a private army in competition to the Irish Defence Forces, the real Óglaich na hÉireann, who are accountable to the national parliament under the Irish constitution.
How about Bertie calling for swift, full and final disbandment of the entire IRA organisation - "army council" and all?
posted by B.U. @ 9:49 a.m.
3 comments
3 Comments:
If I'm not mistaken, only the protestant organizations still have full control of their weapons and haven't even made a pretence at disbanding. This smacks terribly of protestant hegemony again. "You guys give up and surrender absolutely everything and we'll plunder and rob, pillage and rape to our hearts' content." The hypocrisy in the protestant position is almost too much to bear. One size fits all. Where is the quid pro quo?
Glad to see you back, you've been missed!
Welcome back BU hope you had a great summer!
In fairness to Bertie Ahern & others, the full article is below:
Former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern has stepped into the row over the political deadlock at Stormont.
Mr Ahern said the existence of the IRA army council was not a precondition to the transfer of policing and justice powers to Stormont.
He said the DUP was "well aware" of the British and Irish governments' commitment to the deadline for such a transfer.
"It should have been long done by this stage," he said.
The Executive has not met in three months after the issue caused a political impasse between the DUP and Sinn Féin.
In an interview for BBC NI's Hearts and Minds programme, Mr Ahern also spoke of his admiration for former DUP leader Ian Paisley.
He praised him for "resisting the temptation" to make the disbandment of the IRA army council an issue during the St Andrews negotiations.
Mr Ahern said he understood unionists needed to feel "certainty" in order to establish trust with republicans and felt the IRA perhaps needed to spell out its intentions more clearly.
But he said he did not believe the organisation would ever say it would never exist in any role.
He repeated his desire for the IRA to evolve into a "commemorative" organisation but said the devolution of policing and justice was "never predicated" on the disbandment of the IRA army council.
"All of this was known when the agreement was made. It's not only now or in the last year that we discovered there's a thing called the army council," he said.
He cautioned against Sinn Fein and the DUP "escalating" the situation and said both parties could resolve their differences through direct dialogue.
The former Taoiseach also spoke of his disappointment at the Republic's rejection of the Lisbon Treaty which he felt had happened because the document was "too complicated" for people to understand.
He said he believed the Irish government would have to re-run the referendum.
He also rejected any suggestion of misconduct in his financial dealings and said he hoped some day to be able to clear his name.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/7634672.stm
BU
Hugh Orde has said the Army Councul is no threat to his officers.
seems like we have a sort of agreement for devolution of P&J.
alls well that ends well.
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