DISSIDENT REPUBLICANS have rejected an offer by a senior Catholic priest to engage in dialogue with the Real IRA following the paramilitary group’s latest threat against Police Service of Northern Ireland officers issued on Monday.
A source close to the dissident republican movement in Derry yesterday said the organisation saw no point in accepting an offer from Fr Michael Canny for unconditional face-to-face talks.
Fr Canny, the administrator of St Eugene’s parish in Derry and the diocesan spokesman for Bishop Séamus Hegarty, made the offer on Tuesday, the day after a masked Real IRA spokesman at an Easter commemoration rally in the city cemetery in Derry said the republican paramilitary group would “execute” police officers, irrespective of their religion.
He also said the Real IRA would step up its murder campaign against members of the PSNI.
At the rally, which was organised by the 32 County Sovereignty Movement – viewed as the political wing of the Real IRA – the dissident spokesman also criticised the Catholic Church and the GAA for their support of the PSNI following the murder earlier this month of Constable Ronan Kerr in Omagh.
Fr Canny, in making his offer, said it was incumbent on everyone to persuade the dissidents to reflect on their position. He said “their campaign means death, imprisonment and misery and has nothing to offer society”.
Dissidents, however, yesterday rejected this overture. “While Fr Canny said he did not wish to engage in airwave diplomacy, we find that impossible to equate with Fr Canny’s media comments that the dissident republican movement has no room in which to manoeuvre and that the actions of dissident republicans were those of evil men,” said the source close to the dissidents.
“Because of these preconceived beliefs expressed by Fr Canny in the public domain, we do not feel there would be any merit in meeting with him. His publicly stated beliefs are not conducive to open and frank dialogue.
“Therefore we do not believe there is any merit in us meeting with Fr Canny at this time,” the source added.
* The parcel bomb that ended up in a Belfast sorting office on Tuesday has been made safe and transferred to Scottish police investigating attacks on Celtic football club manager Neil Lennon and high-profile supporters of the club, writes DAN KEENAN
The device is believed to be the fifth examined by police investigating the posting of parcel bombs to the Co Armagh-born Celtic manager and key Celtic supporters in Scotland.