CIRA dismisses talks offer

A member of the Continuity IRA has dismissed offers from senior Sinn Fein figures to enter into talks, according to the Guardian newspaper.

In an interview in north Armagh, the CIRA prisoner reportedly said: “Speaking to Sinn Fein at this moment of time, you are speaking to British ministers in a puppet government. When the time comes for anybody to speak to the British, I believe they will speak to them in Westminster.

“I see no merit in speaking to Sinn Fein, former republicans who now have openly and publicly stated that they are informers.”

He compared the recent killing by a breakaway IRA group of PSNI man Ronan Kerr with the CIRA shooting of another PSNI man Steven Carroll, in Craigavon two years ago, and said it was “a tragic occurrence”.

“Ronan Kerr joined a British police force therefore Ronan Kerr was a legitimate target, the same as Constable Carroll,” he said.

“Whilst the loss of any human life is a tragic occurrence, certainly there is regret that a man could lose his life but it’s the reality on the ground in Ireland today that there is still British political and military interference in the north so there is still going to be resistance to that. And that has been the case down through the years.”

He pointed to the Kerr killing as evidence that more ‘mainstream’ republicans were coming over to organisation’s way of thinking. He said the members of the group that placed the bomb underneath the Catholic policeman’s car outside his home in Omagh were relatively recent recruits from the former ranks of the Provisional IRA.

“We have seen it in the last number of months in the aftermath of the killing of Ronan Kerr that the blame and the claim of responsibility was put on former members, recently former members of the Provisionals. So therefore that shows in itself that even high-ranking Provisionals are becoming disgruntled with the so-called peace process,” he said.

Urgent Appeal