THE NORTH:MARTIN McGUINNESS has denounced all dissident republican violence, insisting only political action can bring about change.
Addressing a 1916 commemoration in Co Derry, the North’s Deputy First Minister insisted: “The small factions currently engaging in armed actions are not the IRA and they are not advancing national and democratic objectives by their activities.”
Irish people had united in support of the Good Friday agreement, he said, and supported the St Andrews agreement and last year’s Hillsborough agreement on the transfer of justice powers.
He warned dissident republican groups: “Attempting to overturn the will of the Irish people is not only futile, it is stupid and selfish.
“Ireland can now only be reunited by the further development and outworking of the power sharing and all-Ireland institutions which were endorsed by the Irish people in the referendum in 1998.
“No act of violence will advance the cause of reunification by one millimetre. It is patently not possible to advance towards Irish reunification by any means other than peaceful and democratic processes. Those who believe that Ireland can be reunited without the support of the Irish people are living in a fool’s paradise.”
Citing the signatories of the Proclamation 95 years ago, Mr McGuinness said: “We are for the removal of partition, the end of British jurisdiction in Ireland and the reunification of our nation and, in the words of Pádraic Pearse, the people are the nation.”
However, he backed the IRA’s campaign, praising those who were involved in it.
“The IRA fought a long guerrilla war in these hills and in towns and cities and villages across the North for over 30 years. The IRA forced the British government to the negotiating table.”