Harney's Hardline on real IRA

The Omagh Bombing was so manifestly evil in itself, so grievous in its human consequences and so crudely obvious in its timing and intention that it presents us all with a challenge of unique urgency and importance.

It was the work of a tiny perverted minority who reject the Belfast Agreement. Second only to the grotesque, immediate and continuing human misery caused, the cruellest aspect of the bombing was that it eclipsed the hope that flowed from the Agreement and threatened a return to the abyss of the previous thirty years. It was as though the demon of violence, which we thought dead, had revived in all its horror.

Many words of condemnation and revulsion have been uttered since that fateful moment in Omagh at 3.10 on Saturday, 15th August last. All those words will ring hallow to the relatives and friends of the Omagh victims, and to the body politic of the democratic world, unless the most powerful force of the law is unleashed against the perpetrators, sympathisers and fellow travellers of the self-styled, murderous Real IRA and their ilk.

Just over three months ago, we submitted for the decision of the people of Ireland, North and South, very specific and far-reaching proposals aimed at ending the soul-destroying, life-blighting violence which has marred our history and our lives for so long. The people on this island endorsed the measures, some of them understandably distasteful to some, deemed necessary for the advancement of the peace process.

That momentous assent, which involved recasting the very fundamentals of our Constitution, our collective self-image, and equally huge adjustments in the position of others, was given in great seriousness and with great hope. It was an extraordinary effort for peace, reflecting the agreement of people of very diverse opinions that a lifeline out of our historic enmities had to be found and grasped.

In reality, it was the achievement not so much of this Government or its counterpart, or of the Northern politicians who strove so mightily for it, but of this generation. It is historic in the hope it offers.

In the measures before the House later today, the Government is concerned to address its first clear political duty. That is to endeavour to bring to justice the perpetrators of this deed and to prevent the perpetration of another Omagh.

These measures are in some respects harsh and draconian, because they are designed to prevent something infinitely harsher. They are based upon accepted civil and legal rights and procedures in order to enforce the rule of law and the right to life. This right is under threat, as the events in Omagh proved all too graphically, from a tiny splinter group, which is answerable to no-one and which cares about no-one.

That group is unaffected by the dictates of morality and by the unambiguous desire for peace among the people of this island. Its members are crazed, deluded people full of perverted arrogance, which allows them to perpetrate mass murder without compunction. The words of Macbeth so aptly describe the Omagh bombers: 'I am, in blood, stepped in so far that should I wade no more, returning were as tedious as to go o'er'.

This group possesses the means to commit further murder and mayhem. It is against that background that the present measures become necessary.

The Government has a clear duty to take extraordinary measures in the face of an extraordinary threat to life itself and to the peace process which the people have so recently endorsed. We do not under-estimate the far-reaching nature of the interference with the ordinary process of law. But even the law so altered stands in stark contrast to the random summary execution of twenty-eight people by the nameless thugs against whom these measures are directed.

These measures will effect only a small number of people. Those so effected will receive a public trial, before an independent court, with a presumption of innocence and a judiciary properly concerned to apply the law in a dispassionate and even-handed manner. They will have every opportunity to explain their position and dispute the evidence against them. The modifications to the law of evidence under which they will be tried will have been enacted by the democratically elected members of the Oireachtas.

Those who have any reservation as to the operation of the new laws will have the opportunity to analyse them as they are publicly administered and to raise any criticism they think appropriate. Everything, which is proposed, has been found necessary on the advice of those charged with providing fundamental security in the State and has been framed with the most careful legal advice.

The nameless killers against whom these measures are directed, and those who directed or assisted them, claim to act on a republican principle, which they think allows them to carry on a so-called war. This principle is a perversion of the republican ideal. The true ideal is that endorsed by the people, who have spoken so strongly and in overwhelming numbers against the dictatorship of the tiny crazed, isolated group of evil zealots who placed the bomb.

The people are the sole source of authority in this Republic. All authority is expressed by and under the Constitution which, in the words of its preamble, the people "gave to themselves".

That Constitution, and its recent amendment as reiterated, clearly requires an exclusively peaceful national policy and requires respect for the mandate of the people and for the position of the majority in Northern Ireland. That is the constitutional essence of this Republic. I believe that yesterday's statement by Mr. Adams, President of Sinn Fein is highly significant. It is groundbreaking for the republican movement. It will be seen in time as a milestone in the evolution of the peace process.

The attitude and intent demonstrated by Mr. Adam's statement opens up new possibilities for dialogue and political progress. The key now must be for all of the main players to get down to the real business of making the Belfast Agreement work. The words of the Agreement must now become a political reality. The full implementation of all aspects of the Agreement will make a vital difference to the lives of all of the people of this island but particularly those of Northern Ireland.

There is no room in this society for those who follow a perverted ideology so often and so recently rejected by the sovereign people. The Omagh bomb was an evil rejection of the people expressed in the blood of innocence. It is for that reason these measures, and others if necessary, are required. The sovereignty of the people must now be acknowledged by those who, in the past, have given support to the men of violence.

The present proposals convert this moral imperative into a legal duty in the measures against the withholding of information and the use of lands or premises to store the materials of murder. Without such support, the killers could not function. The proposals, in targeting those who direct terrorism and murder without necessarily themselves participating directly in it, are targeting the godfathers of terrorism. This repugnant group must realise that they cannot bask in legal immunity because they were far away when their evil schemes were put into effect by others. Those involved must now take on board the stark fact that their liberty and property may be forfeited if they act as the pawns or the acolytes of killers.

The Omagh outrage challenges us to demonstrate the real conviction behind our words on Good Friday and their later constitutional endorsement. We expect that others in Britain and in Northern Ireland will stand firmly behind their words on that historic occasion, and implement them. It is by reciprocate action on those undertakings that the Peace Process will move from stage to stage and strengthen itself in so doing.

The timing of the Omagh bomb makes its intention crudely obvious. That intention was the destruction of the peace process and the repudiation of the principle of consent, which underpins it. If the bombers were to succeed in this, the will of the people would be utterly frustrated and, inevitably, arrogant, fascistic violence would claim yet further victims.

Like the murder of the Quinn children in July, the Omagh bombing has attracted such heartfelt condemnation from every quarter as to raise a real hope that, after so many unspeakable acts, we are indeed at a watershed in the evolution of our society, North and South. I believe that we are, and that the Good Friday Agreement and all that has flowed from it is a development of historic proportions, central to the peace and prosperity of this island. It is the Government's determination that that process will not and cannot be imperilled by murderous actions from any quarter.