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Send EmailThe Irish Republican Army has given up its armed struggle for a united Ireland, agreeing to turn solely to political methods, an American businessman said yesterday after being briefed on a statement expected from the guerrilla group later this week.
The agreement, if borne out, would be a historic turning point in the violent history of Ireland and Northern Ireland. But there is still widespread official skepticism about I.R.A. promises, particularly when it comes to the issue of disarmament.
Indeed, it was not immediately clear whether the I.R.A. would address how several tons of arms, hidden in bunkers across Ireland, would be disposed of, according to the businessman, Niall O'Dowd, who brokered talks between the I.R.A. and American officials that helped lead to a cease-fire in 1994. The continued existence of those weapons, which were to have been destroyed under an agreement reached after the cease-fire, contributed to the collapse of the Northern Ireland government in 2003.
Last night, an Irish government spokesman said an I.R.A. commitment to nonviolence had to be backed by an unambiguous process for disposing of all its weapons. "The ultimate test is the delivery on that," said the spokesman, who as a matter of routine practice spoke only on the condition that he not be identified. A spokesman for the British government declined comment.
A number of recent signs have pointed to major developments occurring within the I.R.A.
Prime Minister Bertie Ahern of Ireland was cutting short a vacation to return to Dublin later this week. John DeChastelain, a Canadian general who is the chairman of a commission set up to oversee the destruction of paramilitary weapons, is in Ireland this week, the Irish government spokesman said. And Martin McGuinness, one of the leaders of the I.R.A.'s political wing, Sinn Fein, is to go to Washington tomorrow to brief American officials on the peace process, according to Rita O'Hare, Sinn Fein's representative in the United States.
Yesterday, Ireland's justice minister, Michael McDowell, said the top leaders of Sinn Fein, including Gerry Adams and Mr. McGuinness, had stepped down from positions on the I.R.A.'s secretive governing council.
The developments follow a public appeal by Mr. Adams in April, in which he urged the republican movement to turn away from violent struggle and to devote all its energies to politics. Mr. Adams said he had justified the I.R.A.'s activities in the past because no alternative existed for people who did not wish to submit to British authority.
"That struggle can now be taken forward by other means," Mr. Adams said in a speech in Belfast. He asked, "Can you take courageous initiatives which will achieve your aims by purely political and democratic activity?"
Mr. O'Dowd, the publisher of a magazine, Irish America, and a newspaper, Irish Voice, said Mr. Adams and other senior republicans had persuaded the I.R.A. membership that it could succeed politically. Sinn Fein is now the second-largest party in Northern Ireland, and it has made significant gains among voters in the Republic of Ireland since 1994.
"This is a truly historic moment in Irish history," Mr. O'Dowd said. "It is the first time since the founding of the Irish state that the I.R.A. has agreed that there should be no armed struggle. Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness have taken an armed revolutionary movement and succeeded in placing it on a political path. Irish history is littered with people such as Michael Collins, who tried to do the same and failed."
However, the I.R.A.'s failure to disarm since 1994 has created much official skepticism about its motives and statements.
"There is no position whatsoever between being armed and being unarmed for the I.R.A.," said Mr. McDowell, the justice minister. "If the I.R.A. are decommissioning, they must decommission all their weapons in their entirety, every single pistol, every single bullet, the lot."
