N. Ireland Official Goes Public About IRA Past

Martin McGuinness, education minister in Northern Ireland’s power-sharing government, confirmed publicly for the first time Wednesday that he was a senior commander of the Irish Republican Army during some of the bloodiest days of the province’s sectarian conflict.

McGuinness is a leader of Sinn Fein, the political arm of the IRA, and his early militancy in the armed group has been an open secret since he was twice jailed for it in the 1970s. But his willingness to state the fact aloud is seen as a significant step for the clandestine organization--and possibly for politics in Northern Ireland.

“When old soldiers begin to speak, you can begin to talk about the war being over,” said Denis Bradley, a commentator for the Irish News newspaper.

McGuinness dodged questions about when he might have left the IRA and does not discuss his current relationship with the group, but it is highly unlikely he would have broken the IRA’s code of silence without the consent of the leadership.

Opponents of the 1998 Good Friday peace agreement, which laid the groundwork for Irish republicans and pro-British Protestant unionists to begin sharing power last year, seized on the announcement to call for the resignation of what some labeled the “confessed terrorist.”

The admission came as part of a public inquiry into “Bloody Sunday,” the day in 1972 when British troops opened fire on a civil rights demonstration in the city of Londonderry, killing 14 unarmed civilians. The soldiers say they were fired on first by IRA gunmen, but protesters--and now McGuinness--say that is untrue.

The public inquiry into Bloody Sunday opened last year and has received written or oral testimony from 1,691 soldiers, police officers, politicians, clergy, civilians and members of the media present that day. So far, no acknowledged IRA member has testified.

Irish nationalists believe that British troops were at fault and have been pressing the IRA to speak up for what they believe to be the truth.

“There is no way the republican movement could have gotten around this moment,” said Bradley. “For republicans in Derry [Londonderry], Bloody Sunday is sacrosanct. The IRA had to find a method of putting their case forward.”

Because of his position in Londonderry then and in the government now, “McGuinness had to be that person,” Bradley added. “And he had to be released by the IRA to do it.”

McGuinness submitted a draft of his statement earlier this week to the panel of three judges conducting the inquiry and is expected to testify after a summer break. His statement has not been made public, but he spoke about it during a news conference Wednesday at Sinn Fein’s Belfast headquarters.

Asked by a journalist if he was the IRA’s deputy commander in Londonderry on Bloody Sunday, McGuinness answered with a clear and serious “yes.” He said he will testify to that fact before the tribunal.

“I also will tell them there were no IRA units on the march, in the Rossville Flats area” where most of the victims were shot, he said. “There were no IRA weapons in that area and no IRA shots were fired at the British army.”

McGuinness said that in his statement to the tribunal, “I have given a very full and very frank and very honest account of what I was doing on Bloody Sunday.”

He dismissed claims that the British had killed IRA members in the crowd that day who were secretly buried across the border in the Irish Republic.

“It’s rubbish, total and absolute nonsense. If that had happened I would have known, the people of Derry would have known,” he said. “The people who were killed were innocent, peaceful civil rights demonstrators. They were massacred by the Parachute Regiment. The people of Derry know that, but the world now needed to know.”

McGuinness said the Bloody Sunday inquiry raised the question of whether Northern Ireland should have a tribunal along the lines of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The tribunal would allow republicans, unionists, Royal Ulster Constabulary police officers and British government, army and intelligence personnel to testify about many of the events that left more than 3,500 dead in three decades of political violence.

But political observers in Northern Ireland say the province is a long way from confronting its past, as South Africa did after apartheid.

“It is true that most of the guns are silent most of the time; it is also true that old enemies are working together productively, if not exactly affably,” David McKittrick wrote Wednesday in a column for the Independent newspaper. “But alongside this new-style cooperation, there is still a lot of old-fashioned confrontation in the political system.”

Unlike in South Africa, he noted, the major political issues in Northern Ireland remain unresolved. It is not known whether the peace accord and power-sharing government will survive their enemies and whether the province will remain a part of Britain or opt to join the Irish Republic.

Because the two sides are still battling it out in the political arena, McKittrick wrote, “the belief is that any admission of past sins would be seized on by opponents . . . brandished as a political weapon and used against the penitent.”

This certainly seemed to be the case with McGuinness’ admission. The Rev. Ian Paisley’s anti-agreement Democratic Unionist Party on Tuesday called for a no-confidence vote against McGuinness in the Northern Ireland Assembly, and even unionist supporters of the accord went on the attack.

Cecil Walker, an Ulster Unionist Party member of the British Parliament, said McGuinness’ admission signaled it was time for Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams “to come clean” about his past in the republican movement.

“Republicans who want to attack the record of the RUC and the army must not be allowed to hide their own past activities,” Walker said.

In Dublin, Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern said he welcomed McGuinness’ statement and looked forward to the day when the IRA was no longer in existence.

Special correspondent William Graham in Belfast contributed to this report.