David Norris (Independent)

I support Senator Brian Hayes's suggestion that the Forum for Peace and Reconciliation be convened only if the purpose is to provide a forum where the contending parties in the North could have an opportunity to meet on the margins because otherwise, it is just a talking shop and would not do any good. If, however, it provides an opportunity for these kinds of off the record discussions, it probably would be serving a very useful purpose.

When I heard about the IRA statement, it reminded me of the famous quote, "The IRA hasn't gone away you know". I am afraid it has not and that is a central part of the problem. I was very interested and heartened, in a way, when I heard Senator Mansergh on Radio 1 this morning being very clear and firm in what he said. If I remember correctly, he made the point that Sinn Féin would not come within an ass's roar of participation in democratic government until it resolved this problem of the lingering military associations. The question of criminality is central to this issue. For a long time I felt there would be a difficulty when the armed conflict ceased, that it would be very difficult for people involved in the glamour, emotional excitement and, indeed, the financial profits from operating on the margins of society, to draw away from that into the dull, routine life the rest of us lead. There is a problem of the kind of "Mafiaisation" of the IRA.

Then came the denial that Jerry McCabe's murder was part of an IRA operation. However, it claimed it when it turned out that the people who committed this clearly criminal act where members of the IRA. I said at the time that I felt it was defining itself by that incident into a form of criminality. We recently had the very unpleasant spectacle of Sinn Féin representatives, including young women, saying the killing of Jean McConville was not a crime, so murder is not a crime if committed by members of the IRA.

That makes me worry when I see the IRA's statement saying it will not be quiescent. What does that mean? During the period it describes as quiescent, there have been punishment beatings which is a very bland phrase to cover the mutilation of young people by shooting bullets into their wrists, knees, feet and so on. We are entitled to ask that this stop. I suppose the birth of democracy is always painful. If one is to take an optimistic view, this is just another painful spasm and one hopes that real democracy will be born out of it even among these people who appear to have set their faces against it.