Taoiseach and Adams clash over Dublin hotel attack

Taoiseach Enda Kenny has called on Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams to clarify if weapons used in an attack at Dublin’s Regency Hotel last Friday were previously owned by the Provisional IRA.

Mr Adams said the Continuity IRA had admitted responsibility for the fatal shooting in Drumcondra, adding: “They are not the IRA. The IRA are gone and their weapons are gone. Enda Kenny knows that.”

Minister for Justice Frances Fitzgerald yesterday confirmed a second Special Criminal Court will open on April 4th and condemned the shooting, in which one man was killed and two others were wounded, as “vile, audacious and highly sinister”.

Mr Kenny repeated his criticism of Sinn Féin’s call for the original non-jury court to be abolished when he spoke yesterday at a Fine Gael event in the party’s election headquarters. “I’m interested to hear the media comment that the AK47s may well be very similar, if not of the same cargo, that came in from abroad with the Provisional IRA a number of years ago,” he said.

Mr Kenny said it would be interesting to hear Mr Adams comment on that issue, “because if that’s a fact then it’s absolutely hypocritical to go talking about the abolition of the Special Criminal Court, when we know from judges in the past of the gross intimidation of juries and witnesses”.

Mr Kenny said “gangland does exist”, referring to Mr Adams’s comment at the weekend that the use of the term “gangland” killings was “lazy” because such a phenomenon did not exist.

Mr Adams yesterday said he understood a group calling itself the Continuity IRA had admitted responsibility for the attack. “Incidentally, the same group has me and other Sinn Féin reps under active death threat. This was confirmed to me by the PSNI in recent months,” he said.

The shooting was “a brazen attack in broad daylight by criminal thugs who believe they can operate with impunity and above the normal rule of law,” Mr Adams added. “They should be locked up, where they belong.”

Ms Fitzgerald said gardaí had no intelligence to suggest they should have been present at the hotel. “I have one message that’s very clear today to the people who were involved, and to their partners in crime – this State will take all action necessary to bring you to justice and to make absolutely sure that you are not beyond the rule of law,” she said.

Ms Fitzgerald said the second Special Criminal Court would open during the new law term on April 4th and that judges had been appointed to the court. Asked why gardaí were not present when crime journalists had been there, Ms Fitzgerald said it was not her place to second-guess an operational decision taken by gardaí.

Tánaiste Joan Burton described Mr Adams as the spokesman for the IRA and the republican movement. She said he needed a “reality check” and claimed the Garda would be disabled in its fight against crime if the Special Criminal Court was ended. “He is incredibly out of touch.”

Fianna Fáil’s justice spokesman Niall Collins said the Special Criminal Court’s remit should be expanded. “I believe the public should be extremely suspicious of the motives of other political parties who want to strip our justice system of one of the most effective tools used against terrorists,” he said. “There needs to be a clear signal given that this type of activity is not and will never be tolerated.”