Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams and DUP deputy leader Peter Robinson held talks at Stormont yesterday in an attempt to defuse growing tensions between the two parties amid uncertainty over a date for the devolution of policing and justice powers to the Northern Executive.
An Assembley committee, charged with devising how these powers would be transferred from British direct-rule ministers to the Executive, failed to agree a timetable for such devolution.
Mr Adams and DUP employment minister Nigel Dodds engaged in mutual recrimination over the issue. Sinn Fein and the DUP also discussed the threat of each respectively employing their vetoes against each other to frustrate the order of business.
The Sinn Fein president warned of the DUP creating an unnecessary and artificial crisis. He continued to argue that the devolution of justice powers was agreed in the St Andrews Agreement, while Mr Dodds denied that there was ever such a DUP commitment and that there would be no move on justice and policing "until the DUP says so".
The dispute over policing and justice, however, was a mere pointer to greater tensions between the parties. Mr Adams and other Sinn Féin politicians took particular offence at what they said were the insulting nature and tone of Mr Dodds's remarks.
Mr Dodds said that "people will not be easily persuaded that these people [Sinn Féin] are fit to have any control in terms of policing and justice".
Sinn Féin also described as offensive and gratuitous Mr Dodds' additional comments that the DUP had consigned the Irish Language Act, also proposed in the St Andrews Agreement, "to the dustbin".
Mr Adams also said that the GAA had made representations to Sinn Féin about what it construed as offensive DUP comments about the organisation when it was attempting to reach out to the DUP and unionism in general.
"I have to say that many people are offended, and with some justification with some of the utterances by some senior DUP figures," said Mr Adams, who also warned that the power of veto was a "double-edged" sword, and that Sinn Féin equally could block DUP political business.
"I just think it's time for people to calm down," he added. "There are five or six big issues which are not going to go away that need to be resolved . . . My only concern is that some DUP people may lose the run of themselves and talk or insult everybody else, and talk the whole situation into a crisis, and that must be avoided," he said.
A senior DUP source in turn added that Sinn Féin was the main author of the difficulties through its attempt to hold a commemoration for IRA member Mairéad Farrell at Stormont, and through the pre-Sinn Féin ardfheis comments of Mr McGuinness that he wished he could have killed every British soldier in Derry after Bloody Sunday.
"How do you think that went down with unionists? That was much more offensive than anything Nigel Dodds might have said," he said.
Mr Adams met Mr Robinson to discuss how the current difficulties could be resolved, Sinn Féin and the DUP confirmed.
Asked would this attempt at defusing the tensions work, Mr Adams replied, "let's see."
