Continuity IRA ‘disbands, ends campaign’

A STATEMENT from a group purporting to be the Continuity IRA has said it has decided to disband and end its ‘futile’ armed campaign.

The group stated the decision to disband from midnight last night and over a threemonth period, was taken after consulting its membership at a meeting of the leadership of the Continuity Sinn Féin/CIRA in the North.

‘The CIRA leadership meeting in the six counties has taken in the last number of weeks the decision to abandon its armed campaign,’ the statement said.

‘After meeting with our membership throughout the 32 counties it was decided that the opportunity now exists for the attainment of our political goals by abandoning the armed struggle.’

The statement, which includes a recognised code word, thanks republicans and ‘members of the clergy’ for their ‘great assistance in guiding us in this decision’. The statement includes an apology for the effects of the group’s violent actions on communities.

‘We know the great hurt and pain we have inflicted on communities both north and south and, for that, we offer our sincerest apology and hope by this action no more pain or loss will visit them.

‘As of 12 midnight on the 7/6/2017 the organisation known as CSF/CIRA will disband and over a three month period that has being agreed the small amount of arms and explosive material we posses will be decommissioned under agreed procedures.

‘We urge our former activists instead of continuing a futile war to heed the unanimous decision of your leadership along with the vast wishes and the will of the Irish people and put their energy into their families and communities,’ the statement concludes.

The Continuity IRA has been traditionally linked to Republican Sinn Féin since the late 1980s and was opposed to Sinn Féin’s political goals.

The Continuity Sinn Fein organisation, formerly known as Republican Sinn Fein Limerick, was formed in recent years.

Gardaí are said to be looking into the claim it is to disband.

The Continuity IRA was first linked to a number of attacks in the 1990s after the IRA declared a ‘complete cessation of military operations’.

Among its worst atrocities was the 2009 murder of police officer Stephen Carroll in Craigavon, Co. Armagh. Ambushed as he responded to a 999 call, the constable was the first member of the Police Service of Northern Ireland to be murdered by terrorists.

But CIRA ranks were as likely to extort cash from drug dealers and run rackets from pub and club owners in Dublin and elsewhere as they were to target Northern Ireland’s security forces.