On 4 September the Independent Monitoring Commission (IMC) reported that, although the IRA Army Council continues to exist, it poses no threat to the peace process. The report comes at a time when the activity of dissident Republicans opposed to the Good Friday Agreement is at a ten-year high, and they are facing increased harassment by state forces.
The IMC was established by the British and Irish governments to monitor the disbandment of the IRA. Its latest report deals exclusively with the status of the IRA and, in particular, the status of the IRA Army Council, the ruling body of the organisation. It states: ‘The mechanism which they [the IRA] have chosen to bring the armed conflict to a complete end has been the standing down of the structures which engaged in the armed campaign and the conscious decision to allow the Army Council to fall into disuse.’ The report goes on to say that it does not expect the IRA to make any further announcements on the disbandment of the Army Council beyond what it said in 2005 when it declared the end of its military campaign (see FRFI 187).
The IMC report acknowledges that the IRA remains active in gathering intelligence against Republicans still opposed to imperialism in Ireland, but says ‘we believe [intelligence gathering]…is mainly for the purpose of ascertaining the nature of any threat from dissident republicans.’ This is essential for political stability in the north of Ireland; the IRA, along with Sinn Fein, has long played a role in policing the nationalist community given the widespread opposition to British police in Ireland. Today that policing role has brought those Republicans who support the peace process into open confrontation with Republicans who do not, and who maintain continued opposition to British rule. The rebranding of the RUC as Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) has done nothing to convince many working class nationalists that British rule has fundamentally changed.
Republicans point to increased instances of harassment by the PSNI and other state agencies as evidence that when faced with nationalist opposition, nothing has really changed. The PSNI along with politicians have been keen to point out that the threat from dissidents is now at its highest since the signing of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998. This is the cover used by the PSNI to justify continued harassment of such Republicans. PSNI chief constable Hugh Orde has acknowledged for the first time that those becoming involved in Republican militancy were ‘young disenfranchised people’ representing a social stratum within the Six Counties. This is an important admission, as up until now Republicans opposed to the peace process were dismissed as unrepresentative criminal elements. No wonder graffiti has appeared declaring ‘PSNI – 17% Catholic. 100% Unionist.’
With Sinn Fein leaders fully signed up to supporting police in Ireland, the IMC concludes that ‘If another paramilitary organisation were to seek to emerge in future it would have to start afresh with new leaders and a new generation of active members.’
Paul Mallon
FRFI 205 October / November 2008
