Sinn Fein needs to come clean on past

IN the past month alone the ghost of Sinn Fein past has haunted the party across the floor of Dail Eireann.

Indeed, the chamber was suspended in December after a furious row erupted between the Taoiseach Enda Kenny and Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams over the disappearance of Jean McConville.

Mr Kenny declared it was time Mr Adams told the truth about his colourful past.

He then went on to specifically mention the widowed mother of 10 who was abducted, tortured and murdered by the Provisional IRA 40 years ago.

The Taoiseach refused to withdraw his remarks and the House was suspended.

And Tanaiste Eamon Gilmore launched his most stinging attack on Sinn Fein and Mary Lou McDonald on the last Dail sitting day before the Christmas shutdown.

This sort of debate had become a familiar refrain in the course of of the Dail term just finished.

It has provoked two very distinct responses.

Many felt that the frequent challenges from the government benches were fair and reasonable and that the questioning of Sinn Fein's legitimacy was still a viable basis for political debate.

Others felt that the finger pointing and chiding was simply a cynical political ruse to deflect blame from the Government at a time when it was being attacked on all sides.

But the release of the British government files from 1982, which reveal some startling and disturbing allegations about Deputy Dessie Ellis's past, has raised the temperature significantly.

A secret communication from the British embassy in Washington claims that he was linked, by forensic evidence, to some 50 murders in the North and the Republic.

Mr Ellis dismissed the claims when put to him by this newspaper, but a more considered answer is surely required of an elected representative.

Sinn Fein itself might argue that this is all in the past, but sins don't diminish simply with age.

Only full disclosure, and true repentance where necessary, can earn Sinn Fein the sort of respect and legitimacy it so desperately craves and requires.

Irish Independent