Republican anger grows over Adams arrest ‘double standard’
Analysis: squaring justice for McConvilles with political stability is the conundrum in relation to the Sinn Féin president’s arrest
Northern
Ireland Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness addresses the ongoing
detention of Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams, during a press conference
yesterday at the party’s offices on the Falls Road in Belfast.
Photograph: 
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As Gerry Adams works through his fourth day in
police custody and as the personal and political dramas of the Sinn Féin
president and the McConville family unfold, the PSNI continues to
insist it is playing a very straight investigative bat in trying to
establish who murdered Jean McConville.
All sorts
of sub-plots are in the mix, some of them incendiary, and some of which,
understandably, are making the British and Irish governments quite
anxious, but for the moment senior PSNI criminal investigators plough
through a very long list of questions for Adams.
Which
is why a judge yesterday granted permission for the police to extend
the Sinn Féin president’s period sitting in the “serious crime suite” of
Antrim station with his solicitor and his questioners.
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DismissiveJustice Minister David Ford was yesterday dismissive of the Sinn Féin allegation of “political policing”, as was one security source who offered: “Why should anyone, whether he is a senior police officer or a chief executive of a multinational company, expect some deviation from normal criminal investigative procedures just because of who they are?”
Queried
about why Adams was in custody since Wednesday, he replied: “Anybody
who watches TV and thinks you can solve a murder crime in an
hour-and-a-half, together with commercial breaks, should live in the
real world.”
Deputy First Minister Martin
McGuinness, however, continued to be sceptical of the objective policing
line. He is trying to manoeuvre the tricky path between allowing for
police operational independence, as he is bound to do, while also
complaining of “dark” forces within the force. He must also be very
mindful of what is happening at grassroots republican level.
Sinn
Féin also continued to major on its complaint that the arrest was
designed to damage the party’s prospects in the European and local
elections.
Opposition politicians reject this
claim, but perhaps it is an understandable tactical point for Sinn Féin
to argue, a hand they feel they must play.
Effect on performanceBut it’s far from certain that what is happening to Adams will have any effect on how the party performs in three weeks’ time. Sinn Féin has an uncanny ability to make silk purses out of sows’ ears and this could yet work to its electoral advantage.
So, in terms of
the bigger political picture, the election accusation is almost a
diversion because the arrest of Adams could have a far deeper impact
than swaying some floating voters.
It’s more serious than that.
There
has also been some talk of Mary Lou McDonald or Pearse Doherty possibly
succeeding Adams as leader, but in the current context that too is a
sideshow.
It mustn’t be forgotten that Adams, with
Martin McGuinness, is still the iconic figure within mainstream
republicanism. Over the period of the Troubles they were key players in
prosecuting a bloody political and sectarian conflict, but they were
equally significant figures in securing and consolidating the peace.
What would arise were Adams to fall from grace due to one of the most wretched and awful murders of the Troubles?
Ultimately,
therefore, how this unfolds could test whether the glue that has held
the broad republican movement together remains binding.
Double standardsYou can sense a simmering and escalating anger among mainstream republicans. Martin McGuinness complains of double standards in relation to British state and IRA killings while a politician who helped cement the peace – “my friend and my party leader” – remains in custody.
Were there some sort of overarching mechanism to deal with the past, then we might not be in this dilemma.
But
despite efforts by people such as Richard Haass to find a way of
addressing the past in a comprehensive fashion, and despite
controversial calls from the North’s Attorney General John Larkin and
former northern secretary Peter Hain for an effective drawing of a line
under the past, no one has had the courage to properly grasp the issue.
British
prime minister David Cameron at least appears to see the dangers. He
contacted Peter Robinson and McGuinness separately on Thursday night in
an effort to calm nerves.
Yesterday, Northern
Secretary Theresa Villiers spoke of how Cameron understood the
“sensitivity and seriousness” of the situation. Working together on
dealing with the challenges facing Northern Ireland “is still the
crucially important thing, regardless of the outcome of this case”, she
said.
Hard to predictIt’s hard to predict where this will all end. Senior republicans themselves don’t know what is ahead.
The
conundrum is to achieve justice and/or truth for the McConvilles while
ensuring that a grand and mostly successful political project doesn’t
begin to fray at the edges because Adams remains in the frame.
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