Eames calls off Adams meeting
By Brian Rowan
Belfast Telegraph
26 February 2008
Planned talks between Lord Eames and Gerry Adams have been put on hold - just hours after the IRA moved to rule out a meeting with the Consultative Group on the Past.
According to a source a “formal request” for a meeting with the IRA leadership was to have been made this morning - in scheduled private talks involving the retired Church of Ireland Primate and the Sinn Fein President.
But the Belfast Telegraph understands that a face-to-face meeting at Stormont was postponed at the last minute at the request of Lord Eames.
The talks are to be rescheduled when the co-chair of the Consultative Group has had more time to reflect on yesterday’s republican briefing.
That was not conducted by the IRA’s ‘P O’Neill’, but by a senior republican source.
On the Eames/Bradley Group, he said:
–The body was appointed by the British Government
–Its terms of reference were set by the British Government
–It’s reporting back to the British Government.
“In that context they (the IRA) don’t have confidence in the body. Therefore it’s highly unlikely that they would want to meet them,” the source continued.
In effect the IRA answered Lord Eames’ question before it was asked.
But it is understood the Eames/Bradley Group will still make a formal request for a meeting.
As exclusively revealed in this newspaper, the group recently held private talks with the UVF leadership in Belfast, including the most senior figure in that organisation’s ‘Command Staff’ - a man suspected of being a long-time Special Branch agent.
Approaches have also been made to the UDA.
But through an authoritative republican source the IRA has made its position clear.
That will not stop the group from making its recommendations this summer.
Its work is but one phase in a wider process.
One source speaking about the group’s remit said its job “was not to sign, seal and deliver this” - meaning to settle every issue and answer every question at this stage.
'So venceremos, beidh bua againn eigin lá eigin. Sealadaigh abú.'
--Bobby Sands