Sinn Fein backs police force

Gerry Adams said the decision was "truly historic"

Tweet

Print Share

 

Also In The News

Blair looks to climate change breakthrough
Tony Blair has said that the world is close to achieving a breakthrough on climate change.

• Blair looks to climate change breakthrough
• Struggling Home Office faces drug trafficker accusations
• Struggling Home Office faces drug trafficker accusations

 

Sunday, 28, Jan 2007 10:14

Members of Sinn Fein have voted to support the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI).

In a completely unprecedented move, the party's Ard Fheis today approved measures advocated by leader Gerry Adams which end its historic opposition to the PSNI.

The move is expected to rejuvenate the Northern Ireland peace process, which had stalled when the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) insisted that Sinn Fein had to support law and order in the north.

"The decision we have taken today is truly historic. What its significance will be will be how we use this decision to move our struggle forward," Mr Adams told party members after the vote.

"Today you have created the potential to change the political landscape on this island forever."

Mr Adams appealed to unionists to accept the "historic compromise", looking to "the promise and hope of the peace process. to deliver stability, progress and prosperity for all our people".

Although members of the DUP responded to today's vote by saying they wanted to see Sinn Fein's words translated into actions on the ground, the move has been largely welcomed as progress.

Mr Adams called for a "real dialogue", not only with unionists but also with hardline republicans who had left Sinn Fein anticipating today's decision.

"I want to meet with them and to listen to any alternative strategy they want to put forward," he said.

Mr Adams underlined his party's basic commitment to achieving "freedom", the "democratic right of the people of our island", and received cheering and applause when he outlined the basic logic behind this thinking.

"There's no going back - only going forward to a new beginning and a just society. The best way to achieve this is to take control of our own destiny. This means persuading the British government to face up to its responsibilities, and that means the British government leaving Ireland."