Downing Street Says » Northern Ireland

» Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Northern Ireland

On Northern Ireland, as we were saying this morning, Shaun Woodward was emphasising that there appeared to be a small number of criminals behind these murderous acts. The PMS said that Shaun Woodward had used the word criminals regardless of how these people chose to describe themselves. It had been very clear from the Prime Minister s and Northern Ireland Secretary s visit to Northern Ireland yesterday, that these people had no support in the community in Northern Ireland. The political leadership in Northern Ireland across communities was united and had given a very strong and clear response, making their views known.

Shaun Woodward had also emphasised that it was very clear that it was not only the Government s view but also the political parties in Northern Ireland that these criminals would not undermine the peace process.

Put that there was some criticism of Sinn Fein yesterday over the fact that it had taken them 12 hours to respond to the Antrim attack and when they did respond their language was a bit cold, the PMS said that the Prime Minister s view was that we had seen a very strong response right across the community, including from Sinn Fein and that was something he very much welcomed, so we wouldn t share that interpretation of events. Put that today Martin McGuinness had said that the people who carried out the attack on the policemen were traitors, the PMS replied that what we had seen yesterday and what we had seen today was strong condemnatory language from Sinn Fein as well as the other political parties in Northern Ireland.

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