THREAT TO RESIGN LEFT ROBINSON ON THE RUN

Posted By: March 01, 2014

Newton Emerson. Irish News ( Belfast). Saturday, March 1, 2014
IT is completely implausible that any Stormont party has not suspected for years
that there was a backroom deal for IRA on-the-runs. The issue was high on the
political agenda between the 2001 Weston Park talks and the failed 2005 on-the-runs
bill. After IRA decommissioning, which had long been linked to the on-the-runs
issue, well-known supposed fugitives began touring the British isles like carefree
American backpackers. Even more noticeably, Sinn Fein stopped whining about
on-the-runs. The existence of a deal was revealed in the 2009 Eames-Bradley report
and in briefings at the Policing Board in 2007 and 2010. The trial and appeal of
republican Gerry McGeough dropped further heavy hints. Other parties may not have
known the details but they plainly made no effort to find out.

***

PETER Robinson’s threat to resign and force a Stormont election was not about
on-the-runs. It was about bringing to a head the crisis in Unionism that has been
building since the flag protests pitted the DUP against its loyalist grassroots,
leaving it politically paralysed. The resignation process could have been timed to
make a Stormont election coincide with May’s European and council elections,
creating a complete and desperately needed reassertion of the DUP’s mandate.
However, because this made Robinson’s threat credible, the threat worked and David
Cameron caved in, meaning Robinson’s victory has fallen short of what is really
required.

***

IF any Stormont politician has a right to feel aggrieved it is Alliance leader and
justice minister David Ford. When the Downey story broke, the Northern Ireland
Office (NIO) initially and wrongly implied that the on-the-runs deal had only
operated under Labour’s watch. Then it said the scheme had been “devolved”, implying
Ford was running it. However, Ford was none the wiser. What the NIO really meant by
“devolved” was that the scheme had been left to the PSNI and the Public Prosecution
Service, neither of whom had informed the justice minister. The contempt this showed
to Ford from above and below is a genuine resigning matter.

It has been quite a week for Gerry Kelly, Northern Ireland’s oldest corner boy.
First Kelly said he was suing for damages over his brief ride last summer on the
bonnet of a police Land Rover, only to withdraw the suit a few days later. In
January, Kelly and the Land Rover driver accepted “informed warnings”, which the
PSNI clearly hoped would put the matter to rest. Instead, by admitting fault, the
PSNI exposed itself to a claim. Then Kelly had to field interviews on the on-the-run
letters, for which he was the NIO’s postman. Asked by Radio Ulster why he supported
prosecuting Bloody Sunday soldiers, he said it was because, unlike on-the-runs, they
had not come to Sinn Fein for help. Once again, albeit metaphorically, our hero was
clinging to the bonnet.

***

BELFAST’S Policing and Community Safety Partnerships (PCSPs) have launched an
advertising campaign against drug dealers, under the slogan: “Drug dealers don’t
care, do you?” Belfast’s PCSPs contain two members of the PUP, including Winston
Irvine, who has failed to deny being a member of the UVF. Last July, when asked if
the UVF was dealing drugs, Belfast councillor and PUP deputy leader John Kyle said:
“I don’t know the answer to that question.” Belfast’s PCSPs also contain the PSNI,
who when asked last July about loyalist drug-dealing in Belfast said: “there is no
obvious link in terms of intelligence or evidence at this time”.

***

AS many have noted, the on-the-runs row would have caused serious problems for any
Haass deal, not least because Haass’s proposals on dealing with the past were lifted
from the Eames-Bradley report. However, that was not what was exercising UUP leader
Mike Nesbitt at the start of the week. After Martin McGuinness told the assembly
that Richard Haass had briefed President Obama about the failure of the talks, a
reportedly furious Nesbitt said: “At no point was I asked to give Dr Haass
permission to make a report on the confidential discussions to any third parties.”
It is indeed outrageous that one of American’s top diplomats would discuss foreign
affairs at the White House without the consent of the MLA for Strangford. Next week:
Nesbitt warns Putin to stay out of the Crimea.