Defiant Sinn Fein supporters turn out for unveiling of mural portraying Gerry Adams as a ‘peacemaker’ as police continue to question the 65-year-old
Hundreds of Sinn Fein supporters took to the streets of Belfast to protest against the continuing detention of their leader Gerry Adams.
The 65-year-old politician is being questioned in connection by the PSNI in connection with the 1972 kidnap and murder of mother-of-ten Jean McConville.
However, republicans in Northern Ireland believe that the arrest is politically motivated and designed to disrupt SInn Fein’s local and European election campaign in the Irish Republic.
The rally on the nationalist Falls Road was to unveil a mural of the Sinn Fein president as a ‘peacemaker’.
The mural was painted during the week as PSNI detectives continue to question Mr Adams in connection with the murder.
Addressing the crowd, Mr McGuinness said this week represented the ‘dark side’ of policing.
He said: ‘These people want to settle old scores whatever the political cost’.
Mr Adams strenuously denies any involvement in the abduction and murder of Mrs McConville, who was taken from her Belfast home after being accused of being an informer.
Her body was buried on a beach in Co Louth in the Irish Republic where it was recovered in 2003.
However, this week’s developments have threatened the continuing success of the peace process with Sinn Fein threatening to withdraw support from the PSNI if Mr Adams is charged with any crime.
Mr McGuinness said: ‘We worked very hard to reform policing. Sinn Fein’s negotiations strategy succeeded in achieving new policing arrangements but we always knew that there remained with the PSNI an embittered rump of the old RUC (Royal Ulster Constabulary).
‘No police force is immune from criticism if it is acting in a politically biased and partisan fashion.
‘The arrest of Gerry Adams is evidence that there is an element within the PSNI who are against the peace process and who hate Gerry Adams and Sinn Fein.
‘They are what the reformers within the PSNI have described to us as the dark side.
‘They are small in number but very influential. This group is working to a negative and anti-peace process agenda and are actively involved in political policing.
Sinn Fein’s allegations have been dismissed by Northern Ireland’s First Minister Peter Robinson, Justice Minster David Ford and the Northern Ireland secretary Theresa Villiers.
Mr Forde described the arrest as ‘entirely appropriate’.
Mr McGuinness told supporters: ‘In my view this is a failed attempt at the replay of the effort in 1978 to charge Gerry Adams with membership of the IRA. That case was based on hearsay, gossip and newspaper articles. It failed then and it will fail now.
‘Thirty-six years later those within the PSNI who are hostile to the peace process are using the same old dirty tricks. They are deliberately and cynically exploiting the awful killing of Jean McConville and the grief and hurt inflicted on her family. There is a small cabal in the PSNI who have a different agenda, a negative and destructive agenda to both the peace process and Sinn Fein.
‘We under the leadership of Gerry Adams will not allow this element to succeed.
‘Gerry Adams is my friend, Gerry Adams is the leader of Sinn Fein and, in my opinion, Gerry Adams stands head and shoulders above all of those who helped build this peace process.’
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