Comments made by the former Taoiseach, Mr Albert Reynolds, suggesting that it would be impossible for Fianna Fail to ask the IRA to hand over weapons as his party had never handed over guns have caused an angry reaction from unionists.
Mr Reynolds made his comments after delivering the annual P.J. McGrory Lecture in west Belfast on Saturday. In response to a question from the audience, Mr Reynolds recounted remarks he made to the then British prime minister, Mr John Major, after the IRA ceasefire in August 1994.
"I said to John Major, `how can I go to the republican leadership and ask them to give up guns when Fianna Fail never handed over any guns'?" Mr Reynolds said it was well known that members of the first Dail had entered the chamber with "revolvers in their pockets".
Mr Reynolds said yesterday his comments had been reported "out of context" in yesterday's Irish News because it had not been made clear that he was giving an account of a conversation with Mr Major.
The remarks were described as "inflammatory" by the Democratic Unionist Party. Mr Ian Paisley jnr said he believed they were made deliberately. "It was a signal to the Provos, saying `don't move on guns, why should you'?"
He said it was "both hurtful and inflammatory to the unionist community".
Mr Steven King, of the Ulster Unionist Party, said the party "noted with disapproval" the comments. He believed Mr Reynolds was "electioneering for a hardline nationalist vote (for the Presidency)".
An SDLP spokesman, Mr Conal McDevitt, said the party would not like to make any comment on Mr Reynolds's "reading of the history of his own party". He said the position of Fianna Fail, which was also the position of the SDLP, was that the Mitchell principles on decommissioning be accepted.
"We believe decommissioning should take place in parallel to the talks process and we believe strongly that the negotiations should move into substantive talks in September."
Mr Reynolds yesterday explained his remarks. "I was explaining the historical background to John Major. I was saying how the Fianna Fail party grew out of Sinn Fein and that when the Fianna Fail party went into constitutional politics, they didn't hand over guns to anybody, but they were never used again."
He said he had told Mr Major that he, as leader of Fianna Fail, could not maintain his credibility by asking people to do something that his own party had never done. He said this was not the same as saying that Fianna Fail could not ask the IRA to decommission weapons "as part of the process", and said he firmly supported the Mitchell principles.
A Sinn Fein spokesman, Mr Richard McAuley, said Mr Reynolds's comments should be taken in the context that "he was pointing out the absurdity of the decommissioning issue and the way in which it had been used by the British government and by unionists to prevent progress in the peace process".
However, Mr Stephen Farry, of the Alliance Party, said it was "depressing" to see people like Mr Reynolds "trapped by history". He said because something happened in the 1920s, "does not mean things have to work on the same basis in the 1990s".