Double act on high wire that paved the way - The IRA's decommissioning is a testament to the skilled leadership of Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness
From The Irish Times - 24th October 2001
By Niall O'Dowd
Trying to persuade an armed revolutionary movement to take a political path is one of the toughest undertakings in Irish history. Yesterday's IRA statement indicates that the republican leadership has pulled off the near impossible task despite facing daunting odds.
It is a measure of Martin McGuinness and Gerry Adams, the prime architects of the new policy, that, while they have shed some supporters along the way, the movement has reached this point with a minimum of defections. Given the history of splits in Irish republicanism and the bloody aftermath of such divisions, this is a remarkable achievement in itself.
Adams and McGuinness have achieved this new era through a combination of extraordinary patience and an innate skill at understanding their own movement, its history, and its cross-currents and trends.
The move on arms came only after an exhaustive series of internal consultations and meetings which spanned the North, the Republic and Irish-America. Events such as the Colombia arrests and the World Trade Centre bombings of September 11th certainly accelerated the process, but were not by themselves decisive. Having committed themselves to "taking the gun out of Irish politics" as far back as 1994, the Sinn Féin in leadership has since worked unstintingly to make that happen.
At all critical moments they have made the right decisions. When the so-called "Real IRA" split off - a potentially fatal development given that the dissidents came close to taking over the IRA at a fraught convention - the risky decision was to ignore rather than confront them.
This was made with the belief that they would soon lack basic credibility with the republican grassroots. That decision was amply rewarded as the "Real IRA" fell prey to numerous informers and the dreadful Omagh bombing.
It was another indicator that Adams and McGuinness have never lost their bearings when it came to what was important to that movement. No matter how much the outside world, from the White House to 10 Downing Street to editorial boards, urged them to move on a particular issue, by necessity the timing was always of their own choosing, much to the frustration of many.
It also often led to reams of ill-informed comment about the motives of the Sinn Féin leadership and what they were trying to achieve. If there is one consequence of this extraordinary step on weapons it will be to sideline historically such naysayers for ever.
"Adams is a 98 per cent person," said a leading Sinn Féin figure recently. "He's essentially very conservative in terms of his own party, he won't move until he believes he has an absolutely overwhelming level of support."
This same source stated that, within his own movement, Adams has an extraordinary ability to convince others, even those diametrically opposed to his argument.
"I have seen him time and again go into meetings where only 5 per cent of the people there agreed with his position and I have seen him emerge hours later with a majority behind him." |
