NORTHERN IRELAND First Minister Peter Robinson has said no one in Northern Ireland would be surprised that US diplomats reported to Washington that Sinn Féin’s Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness had advance knowledge of the 2004 Northern Bank robbery.
“I don’t think that anybody in Northern Ireland is going to be rocked by anything that appears in WikiLeaks and the Guardian,” Mr Robinson said after a meeting of the British-Irish Council concluded on the Isle of Man.
“We were under no illusion as to the background of any of the parties. Northern Ireland is a small society.
“We all know each other. When we entered into government we did so on the basis of that knowledge.
“We founded the government on the basis of being in government on the same basis, with no one attached any longer to violence, to criminality.”
However, Mr McGuinness, Sinn Féin’s Deputy First Minister, who also attended the Isle of Man meeting, was clearly irritated that charges made by then-taoiseach Bertie Ahern have come back to public prominence.
“At the time Gerry Adams and I rejected what we said were unfounded allegations. We do so again today. We publicly and privately challenged the former taoiseach to produce evidence to support his allegations and he failed.
“It was Gerry’s view and my view that this was more to do with electoral rivalries. Subsequently, Gerry Adams met the taoiseach and he produced no evidence to support his accusations,” Mr McGuinness said.
Taoiseach Brian Cowen has refused to become embroiled in the controversy, repeatedly refusing to answer whether the Government still held the view articulated by his predecessor.
“I am not commenting on any of these WikiLeaks issues. Those matters were dealt with at the time. I see no reason why I should add to any of that,” he said shortly after the meeting of the British-Irish Council finished.
“Others have made their comments and I have made mine. I can’t add to what was said at the time in connection with what is on the public record. That is where things stand.”
Asked if he was disagreeing with Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern’s comments on the issue yesterday, Mr Cowen said he had not heard the remarks made in Dublin by Mr Ahern: “My point in this is that the issue has come before. The taoiseach [of the day] made his views known.
“If the Minister for Justice makes his views known that is his situation and that is the position as he has outlined,” he said.
Asked if he was disagreeing with Mr Ahern, he said: “I am not saying that at all. I am saying that this issue came up before and, as you say, the Minister for Justice has made his view known based on his own advice, so that is where things stand.”