Brady condemns criminality and urges peace

The leader of the Catholic Church in Ireland today condemned criminality and appealed to all involve in the Northern Ireland peace process to maintain efforts to secure a deal.

Dr Sean Brady, who is Primate of All Ireland and the Archbishop of Armagh, was speaking today after the Bush administration endorsed the stance of the British and Irish governments and described the IRA's statement on Wednesday withdrawing its offer to disarm as "unwelcome."

The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, today refused to comment on whether he regarded a second IRA statement - which warned both governments "not to underestimated the seriousness of the situation" - as a threat. "We never have commented for 30 years on IRA statements and we are not going to now", he said.

In last night's statement, the group said the two governments were "trying to play down our [earlier] statement because they are making a mess of the peace process."

In a speech this afternoon, Dr Brady said recent "events and statements" and the current impasse had "created anxiety" to all people on the island of Ireland.

"Some people have responded to recent events with understandable anger and disappointment," he said. "Yet it may be that the challenge is to see the current difficulties, real and significant as they are, as an opportunity rather than an obstacle."

The Primate said recent comments by all sides, which were in "the language of anger, or of subtle threat, humiliation or intimidation," were unhelpful and merely reinforced public disillusionment about the ability of politicians to bring about peace.

Without mentioning the IRA by name, Dr Brady added: "No cause, no sense of alienation from the State, no warped moral logic can ever regard activities such as armed robbery, racketeering and maiming as anything other than gravely contrary to the common good and therefore criminal, sinful and a constant threat to justice and peace."

"A crime is a crime precisely because it injures the good of other people, because it damages the public good. No one should be in any doubt that the deliberate and intentional killing of the innocent is a crime by any human standard and a grave evil in the sight of God," he added.

He appealed to all parties involved to work for a deal which he said was so nearly secured before Christmas. "We have come too far, learnt too much and raised our sights too high to return to the futility of threat, violence and blame."

A US State Department spokesman said today the decision by the IRA to withdraw last year's offer of disarmament was unwelcome. He also insisted all republican and loyalist paramilitary groups had to follow through on commitments in the Belfast Agreement to disarm.

"We share the view of the British and Irish prime ministers that the continuation of paramilitarism and associated criminality remains the central obstacle to a lasting and durable peace in Northern Ireland," he said.

"All paramilitary groups in Northern Ireland should follow through on the Good Friday Agreement commitments to the decommissioning of all weapons."

The statement came after US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met British Prime Minister Tony Blair and his Foreign Secretary, Mr Jack Straw, in London on her first overseas trip in her new role.