Northern Ireland’s first minister, Peter Robinson, has described the Ulster Unionist party’s decision to quit the power-sharing executive in Belfast over alleged ongoing IRA violence as “illogical”.
Robinson, leader of the larger Democratic Unionist party, also accused the UUP of running away from the political battlefield by leaving the five-party devolved coalition.
In his first major response to the crisis threatening devolution in the region, he said it was “a time for cool heads, clear thinking and a steely resolve to ensure that democracy and the rule of law triumph over terror and murder”.
The UUP moved from government into opposition after its ruling executive met on Saturday. The party was reacting to the assessment of the region’s chief constable, George Hamilton, who said the previous weekend that the murder of ex-republican prisoner Kevin McGuigan was carried out by Provisional IRA members.
Unionists of all hues believe the chief constable’s analysis entails a major breach of faith between Sinn Féin and the other parties because the PIRA was supposed to have been run down as a military organisation back in 2005 as part of moves towards power sharing.
However, the two unionist parties differ on how to respond to the McGuigan murder. Sinn Féin meanwhile have accused the UUP of simply scoring political points against its bigger unionist rival by exploiting the McGuigan killing.
Writing in the Belfast Telegraph on Monday, Robinson confirmed the DUP would be meeting David Cameron on Tuesday to discuss the crisis.
“In the coming days, we will hold fast to the fundamental principle that those who are in government in Northern Ireland cannot also be involved with those who engage in paramilitary and criminal activity,” the DUP leader wrote.
Criticising the UUP as irresponsible, Robinson said: “Exiting the field of play is not a tactically clever first option – it can only ever be a last resort.”
He added: “This is not the time to flee the battlefield, it is the time to confront violent republicanism, to stand and fight for democratic principles and to do what is right for the law-abiding citizens of Northern Ireland who want to see our country prosper and reach its full potential.”
Despite Robinson’s criticism of the UUP’s tactics there is massive internal pressure within the DUP to act against Sinn Féin over the PIRA’s alleged re-emergence. The DUP is more likely to try to have Sinn Féin suspended from the executive – a move that is unlikely to the win the backing of the remaining two parties in the coalition, the nationalist SDLP or the Alliance party.
If moves to suspend or expel Sinn Féin fail then there will be calls within the DUP to follow the UUP out of the executive, triggering its collapse.
On Sunday, the former first minister and Nobel peace prize winner Lord Trimble suggested that the body that once examined and monitored paramilitary ceasefires be reconstituted. Lord Trimble argued that reviving the Independent Monitoring Commission would act as a deterrent against further violence from supposedly defunct paramilitary forces.
