silence greets speculation

national | miscellaneous | other press Wednesday August 31, 2005 23:48 by A

Provisional Sinn Féin was last night (Sunday August 28th, 2005) staying silent on reports that former PIRA members will join the RUC/PSNI.

Provisional Sinn Féin was last night (Sunday August 28th, 2005) staying silent on reports that former PIRA members will join the RUC/PSNI.
Speculative reports over the weekend suggested the provisional’s were currently pressing the British government to allow former members of the PIRA into the RUC/PSNI’s ranks.

The bid to clear the way for provisional activists to be recruited into the RUC/PSNI is said to be a condition for Provisional Sinn Féin joining the policing board.
Commenting on the issue, Alliance leader David Ford has conceded that some PIRA members would end up in the police service in the future.

Mr Ford said, "We have to accept that there will be certain bad apples, which are no longer politically motivated, appearing in the police service”.

Such a move would be the logical outcome of the direction, which the Provisionals took in 1986 when they left the Republican Movement in order to participate in the partitionist institutions north and south. Already they have administered British rule in Ireland as British Crown Ministers; policing British rule is the next step.