An Open Letter To Gerry Adams MP

SourceUK.net web site ^ | January 8, 2002 | Harry Barnes MP

[Benson_Carter]

Dear Gerry

Today is the first day on which you can claim office space and parliamentary allowances. You’ll see from last month’s debate in the Commons that I did much to support the proposition that you and your colleagues are given offices in the Commons.

Together with the allowances, this should net about half a million pounds for Sinn Fein. This tidy little sum will go some way to making up the shortfall in funding from gullible Americans who were outraged by the IRA activities in Colombia organised by your friend, let’s just call him bungling Brian.

You know yourself how angry the US Administration was since Richard Haas told you to your face. He is reported to have said the following: "If any American, service personnel or civilian, is killed in Colombia by the technology the IRA supplied then you can f... off." Haas added ’Don’t tell me you know nothing about what’s going on there, we know everything about it.’ Bang to rights, I say.

The good thing that came out of this mess was that the IRA started decommissioning, at last, and I ask that you agree that this process must continue. And it also created the atmosphere in which you and your fellow MPs will get office space.

I’m now proposing that the Commons spends some extra money - by taking out an annual subscription to An Phoblacht/Republican News (APRN).

I know that it is a bitter little rag, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of the IRA. But I want all MPs to be able to read it regularly so that they can better understand the primitive politics of your party.

APRN has changed. It no longer carries that twisted column, War News, which praised IRA murders. But APRN still glorifies IRA actions. The paper exulted the murder of the Unionist MP, Robert Bradford, even as you were on the way to getting offices here in the Commons.

My view, as I told the Commons, is that Sinn Fein gets away with murder in media interviews. I want to make sure that MPs are fully briefed on your politics and can tackle your contradictions, help you to move away from the conflict which you did so much to create and sustain and work with you on issues of common concern.

But I have some questions about your double standards. The main double standard concerns the continuing victims of the Troubles. On the one hand, your movement has benefited from the release of all its prisoners, many of whom were convicted of heinous crimes and who often live cheek by jowl with the relatives of their victims.

And next, several Provos on the run will have all outstanding proceedings waived. But what about those who are on the run from the Provos?

But the republican movement still has prisoners. Your organisation has exiled many thousands of people from Northern Ireland over the past 30 years. They may not be in prisons but they are exiled from their loved ones and many want to return home. There are some children, now adults, who think their fathers are dead when in fact they have been forcibly exiled. Will you make it clear that the IRA’s life sentences on these exiles should and will be rescinded?

And there is another category of exiles. These are the people who broke the rules of the IRA by informing on its illegal activities to the proper authorities.

Very many of them have already been murdered. You used to know Eamon Collins and it’s a fair bet that you know who brutally bludgeoned him to death in Newry. You know who tried to murder Marty McGartland for one of the men who kidnapped him was your own bodyguard.

My question is whether you will wipe the slate clean and say that these informers are free to return home, if they wish. Your prisoners have been released. It’s time for some payback. Release the exiles and lift your fatwas now, please. Such a humanitarian move would do much to redeem the Republican Movement.

If you need to know anymore about the position of the exiles, please take a long look at the report of the Northern Ireland Select Committee. This is being debated in February and I am inviting you to attend the debate and speak to those who are concerned about it.

So Gerry, I look forward to welcoming you to the Palace of Westminster and chatting to you, your colleagues and your staff. But if we are to make a fresh start, we need answers to questions such as mine. If you want to take the Queen’s shilling, you must be prepared for a rough ride too.

[Benson_Carter]

this raises some interesting points and addresses some very important issues regarding Sinn Fein and the IRA. There are more and more folks of Nationalist persuasion here in the USA who can not condone the actions of the IRA, and what happened in Cuba was not surprising but was also the straw that broke the Irish-American Nationalist camels back, so to speak.

I don't agree with Sinn Fein taking the Queen's money while not taking their seats in Parliment, but if the Brits are dumb enough to let it happen then so be it. In all honesty, what's the use of electing Adams and McGuinness to Parliment if they're not going to accomplish anything.

Isn't it a big joke anyways? Some say Adams has been taking the Queens's shilling for years and years anyways, so what's new about this.

[Benson_Carter]

for discussion, please

[Colosis]

The hypocrisy of Sinn Fein has not gone unnoticed here. Increasingly, they are alienating themselves from those who supported them in the US and Ireland. The most important thing is that the IRA ceasefire remains intact, especially during these high tension days in NI.

[Benson_Carter]

bttt

[Happygal]

The most important thing is that the IRA ceasefire remains intact, especially during these high tension days in NI.

Agreed!

[Benson_Carter]

thanks for the NewsHounds link!

[constitutiongirl]

Sinn Fein MPs refuse to take an oath of loyalty to the Queen(duh), therefore they're 'useless' in Parliament. A friend of mine near Ballycastle has a brother she hasn't seen or heard from in 10 years. She believes he's been 'exiled' and thinks he's afraid to correspond (for the safety of the family in NI). That's one of the many dangers of becoming entangled with paramilitaries. If you piss them off or do something violating their 'laws', its not as if they can imprison someone. The only options seem to be assassination or exile.

[constitutiongirl]

Any guess as to how many bodyguards Gerry will need in London? :)

[Norn Iron]

Any guess as to where he will recruit them?

A friend told me about a friend of his who works in the Health ministry in Belfast under Bairbre de Brun. He had just stepped out of his office when he was bundled back inside by one of her 'minders'. The explanation given by the oaf was: "The Minister's coming".

[constitutiongirl]

They've taken lessons from Hillary Clinton's people, I see. I assume your friend's friend didn't attempt to make eye contact. I doubt he'd be able to tell the story if he had. :)

[Norn Iron]

Gerry can now claim up to an additional £100,000 per year in expenses. That's 2 million Queen's shillings in the old style! I wonder what his less well off supporters on the Falls Road think of the double millionaire! It seems that 'forcing the Brit hand' has been replaced by holding out the Irish hand!

[Norn Iron]

Perhaps you could have written British/Irish rather than British! I note that some Irish Republican supporters in the USA have taken to calling Martin McGuinness: "Her Majesty's Minister of Education".