Opinion: This could be end of road for peace process

The intemperate attack on Sinn Féin launched by the Taoiseach Bertie Ahern during the week may well signal the beginning of the end of the peace process - a result that has been desperately sought by opposition politicians, journalists and PD Government ministers for some considerable time now.

Ahern's outburst was surprising, given that the day before, after meeting with Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness in Government buildings, he had not engaged in anti-Republican hysteria.

While the issue of the Northern Bank robbery was raised at the meeting, at which Minister of Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern and and Minister for Justice Michael McDowell were also present, it did not dominate.

After a brief but testy exchange the participants moved on to shared positions on developing the talks context and working out formulas to deal with outstanding issues - not all of which, by any means, are for republicans to resolve.

This point is an important one, for immediately after the meeting, in his briefing to journalists, Michael McDowell gave the impression that "criminality" had dominated the agenda, that republicans had been sent away "with a flea in their ear" (as RTÉ's David Davin Power put it).

In fact, no such instruction was issued, and McDowell's account seems to have more to do with wishful thinking and a certain timidity when facing the big boys than with anything else. What is clear is that Adams and McGuinness asked Bertie Ahern to stand up his allegations that the two republican leaders knew in advance of the Northern Bank robbery. Adams claimed that Ahern had failed to do this, and this point was tacitly admitted by McDowell when he declared that the Government had never had any intention of "sharing our intelligence" with republicans.

Nevertheless the Government finally blurted out that their "intelligence" was based on the "opinion" of senior Garda officers (the Special Branch). This is the same Special Branch that is livid about the idea of Jerry McCabe's killers being freed, so what is more natural than that they should investigate the issue in the time-honoured way: Seán in Dublin rings Billy in Belfast and asks him. What a surprise that he got the same answer as Hugh Orde. This isn't serious politics, no matter how often Ahern may bleat that he must accept the word of the Garda. And for such power over the peace process and the Good Friday Agreement to be given to policemen who hate republicans is a recipe for the disaster that we have.

Nevertheless, both Adams and McGuinness were restrained in their comments after Tuesday's meeting and keen to move on: in this, they were in tune with the 62 per cent who revealed a similar wish in the Irish Times opinion poll. Bertie Ahern was also low-key, even though he stuck firm to the analysis that the Garda had given him, with McDowell left alone to engage in the anti-republican hysteria that is posing such a challenge to Fine Gael votes.

What then caused Bertie to go back on the offensive on Wednesday, and probably push the peace process over the brink? The simple explanation is that he can't take the heat in the kitchen, and buckled under the weight of media pressure, opposition taunts and PD bullying. But can the situation be rescued and brought back from the abyss?

It should be understood that rank and file republicans and supporters have also lost trust in the process. They see no demilitarisation by the British Army and the RUC (operating under a new name, but with nothing else new about it); they see the same anti-Catholic and anti-nationalist bigotry manifested daily in sectarian attacks by armed loyalist groups (who escape media censure); they see the same exclusion of their representatives from running the affairs of the North as has always been the case.

None of this has anything to do with the Northern Bank robbery or with any of the nonsense about criminality, which is only a mask for an electoral assault on Sinn Féin.

There will be no deal anyway for at least a year, with the DUP refusing to play ball. But by letting the DUP off the hook, the Government will strengthen that party's illusion that the game can be played without Sinn Féin.

It raises a serious question for republicans: whether or not it's worthwhile carrying on with a government that has abandoned its interest in a fair solution.

Eoin Ó Murchú is the Eagraí Polaitíochta of RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta. He is writing here in a personal capacity.