A PLEA to the Taoiseach Mr Bruton, to "please, please, please" stop blaming Sinn Fein for the failures of others was made by the national chairman of the organisation, Mr Mitchel McLaughlin. He was addressing the 40th anniversary commemoration of Sean South at Mount St Lawrence Cemetery in Limerick.
He asked the Taoiseach to accept responsibility, "especially for your own misunderstandings, mistakes and failures in your dealings with the British government and the unionists and your handling of the peace process".
He also urged all political parties with a mandate in the preelection period to establish a bipartisan agreement on dialogue.
Mr McLaughlin told the attendance of over 100 that in the coming months the electorates north and south would have the opportunity to vote in three critical elections. He observed that some had speculated that the peace process should be put on hold, primarily because the paralysis of Mr Major's government meant that there was very little prospect of inclusive negotiations until a newly mandated British government was put in place.
"However, none of us should shirk our responsibility to persist in trying to rebuild the badly damaged project in the meantime" he said.
"Sinn Fein believes that the peace is process is irrevocable, which why it is and will remain our number one priority," he said. "The British government and the unionist leaderships have demonstrated that it can be stalled that it can be damaged, but they could not, and they cannot, kill it off. So long as Gerry Adams and John Hume continue their collective enterprise, then we have grounds for hope and reason to weigh in behind their endeavours."
"The two governments British and Irish, have failed to sustain or to recover the unique potential of autumn 1994, but why should we all be guided by their failure?".
Mr McLaughlin said that when Mr Bruton came into office two years ago he inherited a peace process and cessations from both the loyalists and the IRA. "Today we don't have any of these all important and essential elements. It would be wrong to totally blame John Bruton because over the past two years many mistakes have been made and no one is completely free from responsibility from the present situation."
"Republicans are saying to those who cherish their Britishness that we must recognise our mutual responsibility to design a political settlement which will safeguard all our children equally."
To the unionist leaderships, Sinn Fein was offer a genuine hand of friendship, Mr McLaughlin said, and urged them: "Do not permit any temporary leverage at Westminster to blind you to the need to negotiate a democratic settlement here on this island.
"Trust yourselves, do not repeat the mistakes of history. Ireland needs your contribution now and in the future. Do you really believe that Britain or the British government does?"
He urged all the political parties to use the time before the impending elections to give strong `leadership for peace' so that despite the frustrations and difficulties, the political process itself becomes an irresistible and irreversible march towards a democratic accommodation which all people in Ireland can embrace.
Until the issue of self determination was resolved satisfactorily, Mr McLaughlin said, there could be no equality of treatment or parity of esteem on this island. Partition had inhibited our ability as a people to resolve the causes of poverty, emigration, unemployment and the growing scourge of drug addiction as well as the other more obvious causes of death and destruction arising from the conflict itself.
Earlier, about 100 members of Republican Sinn Fein held their annual Sean South Commemoration at the cemetery. Mr Ruairi O Bradaigh, RSF president, claimed that the much vaunted peace process had foundered on the rocks of British intransigence.
"The question now is who is going to pick up the disenchanted this time? Clearly the Provisionals cannot, since they have been centrally involved in that process," he said.
"It remains then for Republican Sinn Fein to meet the challenge and it must provide a rallying point".