Drew Harris comments on Sinn Fein and IRA fuels row in Republic

Following Mr Harris’s comments – made at a graduation ceremony for new Garda recruits in Co Tipperary – Taoiseach Leo Varadkar posed a question to the Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald on Twitter.

The Fine Gael leader said: “Why doesn’t McDonald disband the Army Council and the PIRA or if she cannot, repudiate them and sever all links and do so publicly and unequivocally?”

Following yesterday’s graduation ceremony Mr Harris told Virgin Media News: “In national security matters and matters around the state, it is my obligation to report to the Government as you would expect me to do.

“Also, we have been contributing to the IRC (Independent Reporting Commission) reporting on the status of various paramilitary groups and we would hold with their opinion on these matters.

“I am also aware of the PSNI and the British security services assessment and we do not differ from that view.”

A report commissioned by the British government on the status of Irish terrorist groups in 2015, which was written by the PSNI and MI5, stated the Provisional Army Council still existed.

The report also stated the Provisional Army Council still oversees the IRA and Sinn Fein.

Responding to the Varadkar tweet, Sinn Fein MP Chris Hazzard said: “In the space of a few days Leo has delivered a spectacular electoral defeat for Fine Gael; been forced to resign as Taoiseach; and has descended into life as a Twitter troll.”

On Thursday, Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin launched a scathing attack on Ms McDonald and Sinn Féin during a heated debate in the Dáil.

Mr Martin said he was not prepared go into go into government with Sinn Féin because of the party’s “efforts to legitimise a murderous sectarian campaign” of the Provisional IRA.

In return, Ms McDonald accused him of a “diatribe and vitriol” that had served him very badly in the recent general election.

Responding to the Garda commissioner’s comments, the Irish Republican News on Twitter said: “Seriously crazy stuff going down. The 26 Counties comes out as a police state. Hard to tell where things go from here. We’re truly in hell.”

However, outspoken critics of Sinn Fein believe the intervention of Mr Harris will increase pressure on the party.

Máiría Cahill said: “When the Garda Commissioner and the PSNI both say that the IRA run Sinn Fein, it’s not a conspiracy theory. It’s a security assessment with intelligence and is done for the purposes of monitoring terrorism. Those who mocked ‘shadowy figures’ need to wise up. Get SF, you get IRA,” she tweeted.

Also on Twitter, former IRA life-sentence prisoner Anthony McIntyre said: “It becomes harder for SF to deny it given their full hearted support for both agencies. I think the trajectory and growth of the party ultimately has to attenuate the influence of the cabal.”

TUV leader Jim Allister said the Drew Harris assessment raised “profoundly disturbing questions” that need to be confronted by unionists who once pledged that ‘all paramilitary and criminal activity and terrorist structures must be abandoned before Sinn Fein is admitted to government’”.

He said: “Drew Harris’s candid comments about the role of the PIRA Army Council in overseeing Sinn Fein are in stark contrast with the attempts of our own Chief Constable to duck the issue a few days ago.

Mr Allister added: “It is long past the point when unionists should have woken up to the moral evil and political foolishness of sharing power with the IRA’s political wing.

“Today’s comments by Drew Harris are a reminder of what the right thing to do in relation to sharing power with Sinn Fein is. Will short term political expediency once again trump morality and plain common sense?”

A Sinn Fein spokesperson said: “It will not be lost on people that this nonsense is again being repeated because he didn’t win the vote for Taoiseach yesterday.

“We have dealt with Leo Varadkar for last three years. He knows full well the war is over and IRA is gone. It is beneath the office as Taoiseach to say this.”