The rearrest of Seán Kelly who was released under the Belfast Agreement was "wrong and unjustified" and created more difficulties for the peace process Sinn Féin's new MP for Newry and Armagh, Conor Murphy, said yesterday.
Giving the oration at the party's annual Wolfe Tone commemoration at Bodenstown, Mr Murphy criticised the move and said that in revoking the licence, Northern Secretary Peter Hain had made his "first serious mistake".
Mr Murphy warned that "critically, as we face into the marching season, there must be no repeat of the decision made by the British government last year which led to near disaster in Ardoyne".
Speaking afterwards to the media, the MP said the rearrest of Kelly "would almost make republicans not go out on the streets and try and quell law and order situations".
Asked would it affect the internal debate happening within the IRA, he said that those who provided the information "will probably hope that happens. I think the IRA are a much more mature organisation than that and I think that their deliberations will continue on."
Kelly had been released early under licence but this was revoked at the weekend by Mr Hain who said he had received security intelligence that Kelly was involved in terrorist activity.
He was jailed in connection with the Shankill bombing in 1993 of Frizzell's butcher shop in which 10 people were killed.
Mr Murphy said: "Seán Kelly has been a positive force in preventing interface violence in north Belfast" and he had been "key to ensuring that we've had peaceful summers over the last number of years".
About 1,000 people, including Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams, former Belfast mayor Alex Maskey, party chairman Mitchel McLaughlin and Louth TD Arthur Morgan, attended the commemoration.
Mr Murphy said Mr Hain's decision to revoke Kelly's release was "based on securocrat advice and should be reversed.
"This British Secretary of State like others before him will learn that opposition to the peace process comes from within his own system as well as from rejectionist unionism and he has to share responsibility as well as the rest of us to make sure they don't succeed."
He also warned republicans of "difficult times" ahead.
"There will without doubt be more difficult decisions to be taken. We must rise to the challenges before us."
The challenge for the Democratic Unionist Party was that "they will have to learn that there is no alternative to sharing power with Irish republicans" and it was not a matter of "if the DUP do a deal but when".