SINN FÉIN president Gerry Adams and Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness were fully aware of the IRA’s plans to carry out the Northern Bank robbery in December 2004, according to the latest WikiLeaks disclosures of secret US cables.
The leaks reveal that then taoiseach Bertie Ahern was convinced Mr Adams and Mr McGuinness – whom he also believed to be IRA leaders – held critical peace process negotiations with him when they knew the IRA was planning the £26.5 million robbery.
A separate WikiLeaks disclosure on fallout from the murder of Northern Ireland solicitor Pat Finucane revealed that MI5, Britain’s internal security service, offered to hand over sensitive files on the case to inquiries into his death. The disclosure was described last night by supporters and relatives of Mr Finucane as “highly significant”.
The disclosure on the bank robbery also revealed the government believed British intelligence agencies had a senior informant at a high level within the republican movement.
Then US ambassador to Dublin James Kenny reported in February 2005 that a Department of Justice official told the embassy of Mr Ahern’s concerns about Mr Adams and Mr McGuinness.
The official, according to the cable, told the ambassador “that the GOI [Government of Ireland] does have ‘rock solid evidence’ that Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness are members of the IRA military command and for that reason, the taoiseach is certain they would have known in advance of the robbery”.
Mr Adams and the IRA insisted at the time that the IRA did not carry out the robbery.
Mr Adams, set to run in Louth in the forthcoming general election, continues to insist he was never an IRA member.
Mr McGuinness has admitted IRA involvement, but long in the past.
The robbery was raised in another cable in June 2005. Mr Kenny reported the taoiseach had expressed his concerns to then special US envoy to Ireland Mitchell Reiss. “The Taoiseach . . . believes Sinn Féin leaders were aware of plans to rob the Northern Bank even as they negotiated with him last fall,” it said. “Publicly, he has been unprecedentedly critical of Sinn Féin and, until recently, [there were] greatly reduced private contacts as well.”
A Sinn Féin spokesman last night said there was “not a shred of evidence” that ever linked the IRA to the robbery. “It is no surprise that political opponents of Sinn Féin at the time such as Bertie Ahern should have been trying to smear Sinn Féin . . . and they are still doing it.”
The context of the cables was that in late 2004 there was real hope of a powersharing deal between the DUP and Sinn Féin, which later collapsed.