Conservative urges Sinn Féin to tell the truth about Garda mole
Sinn Féin should clarify if the Provisional IRA has a ‘mole’ in An Garda Siochána, the Republic of Ireland’s police force, according to Conservative Party spokesman, Johnny Andrews. Mr Andrews said that the Army Council’s oversight of both Sinn Féin and the IRA raises “huge questions” about the party’s links to criminality.
“The Garda’s review of paramilitary activity raises the likelihood that the force may contain an IRA mole, associated closely with a convicted terrorist who killed a policeman”, Johnny explained. “Meanwhile, the assessment commissioned by The Secretary of State for Northern Ireland suggests that the Provisionals’ Army Council oversees both the political and the military wings of the IRA. Sinn Féin needs to come up with some hard answers about this alleged mole, as well as wider issues around IRA criminality in border areas.”
“The party has a political mandate earned at the ballot box, but the republican movement certainly does not have a mandate to engage in crime and maintain a paramilitary organisation. Eighteen years after the Good Friday Agreement, paramilitary groups have no reason to be in existence. The current impasse in Northern Ireland has occurred because Sinn Féin failed to live up to its obligations under the Stormont Agreement. Republicans need to live up to their political commitments, but, most importantly, they need to help rid society of paramilitarism, by telling the truth and cutting the links, once and for all, with the murderers and Mafiosos who still operate within their movement.”