| Submit your comments on this article |
| Europe |
| Public desert Adams after IRA's £26m bank heist |
| 2005-02-25 |
| Gerry Adams, the Sinn Fein president, has suffered the biggest-ever fall in support in an Irish opinion poll following the revelations about the IRA's alleged involvement in a £26 million bank robbery. The poll said public approval for Mr Adams in the Republic of Ireland has dropped 20 points to 31 per cent since before the Northern Bank heist last December. The survey, published in the Irish Independent, suggests that public attitudes are hardening against Sinn Fein as the extent of the IRA's alleged illegal activities becomes clear. That's good to hear. Shame bank robbery seems to be proving less popular with some people than the IRA's previously best known speciality - murder - but you can't have it all. It is estimated that the Provisionals launder an £30 million a year made from counterfeiting, robberies, extortion, racketeering and smuggling. The activity means that the authorities suspect that the IRA has become one of the biggest criminal gangs in Europe. I'd call terrorism criminal activity, myself, but then I carry all sorts of crazy 'universal standards' baggage round in my head. Killing random people is criminal whether you choose to drape yourself in a flag and a philosophy, or whether you don't. Organisations such as the IRA and its loyalist mirrors comrpise people who can, and do, reconcile their consciences to the act of murder. When you look at it that way, discovering that they're - shock, horror - engaged in all sorts of other unpleasant activity isn't really that surprising. Mr Adams has tried to play down his links to the IRA, but he was identified earlier this week as one of its seven-man command council by the Irish justice minister, Michael McDowell. |
| Posted by:Bulldog |
| #1 Now that Arafat's dead I can say, couldn't happen to a nicer guy. |
| Posted by: Mrs. Davis 2005-02-25 4:16:54 PM |