IRA New Year Message

In its New Year message, the leadership of the IRA has again called on others, particularly the British Government, to fulfill their commitments to facilitate progress in the Peace Process.

The leadership of Óglaigh na hÉireann extend New Year greetings to all our Volunteers, friends and supporters at home and abroad.

We send solidarity greetings to our imprisoned comrades and their families and to the families of our dead Volunteers.

In this, the tenth year since the declaration of our complete cessation of military operations in 1994, we affirm our commitment to our objectives of a united, independent and free Ireland.

Throughout the past ten years, republicans have faced many challenges. Despite the difficulties created by others, particularly in their failure to fulfill their commitments, we have not abdicated our responsibilities. We have acted, unilaterally on a number of occasions, and taken significant initiatives to keep the Peace Process alive.

During the past year we again demonstrated our readiness to facilitate progress in a clear and meaningful manner.

In October 2003, as part of a detailed agreement and an agreed sequence, we:

• Met with the IICD with a view to implementing a process to put arms beyond use at the earliest opportunity

• Carried out a further act of putting arms beyond use under the agreed scheme. This involved the largest amount of arms to date.

After that, the sequence was put on hold. Since then, the two governments have not honoured their parts of it.

Consequently, there has been no progress on the range of issues involved. The British Government bears the primary responsibility for this. Its failure to deliver is of deep concern.

The leadership of the IRA have kept our word and fulfilled our commitments. Others must do the same.

P O'Neill,

Irish Republican Publicity Bureau,

Dublin.