5.8.04
Belfast Telegraph
SF man reveals past doubts on truce
05 August 2004
A senior Sinn Fein strategist today revealed that he had deep doubts over the IRA ceasefire 10 years ago.
Long-time activist Jim Gibney spoke publicly for the first time of his misgivings and inner turmoil.
He said on the day of the ceasefire he was near tears on a journey from Dublin to Belfast and unable to face a party meeting.
Mr Gibney was speaking at a discussion event 'Recalling the Ceasefire' in the West Belfast Festival this afternoon organised by the Falls Community Council.
He and fellow senior member Tom Hartley were at a party planning meeting in Dublin when news of the 1994 IRA ceasefire broke.
"The meeting ended quickly and as I listened to the radio on the journey the emotional reaction in me was quite overwhelming. I wasn't in tears, but they were suppressed.
"It was an earthquake in how it shook me up. My head told me what the IRA had done was right but my head said, well, not so much it was wrong but, unsure.
"On the Sunday I felt a real compulsion to go down to the Republican Plot (in Milltown cemetery) where I quietly remembered all the young volunteers I knew who had died. I felt a real sense of emptiness.
"It took me some time to become convinced that we were on the right path. It was such a turnaround and there had been no real preparation for it."
SF man reveals past doubts on truce
05 August 2004
A senior Sinn Fein strategist today revealed that he had deep doubts over the IRA ceasefire 10 years ago.
Long-time activist Jim Gibney spoke publicly for the first time of his misgivings and inner turmoil.
He said on the day of the ceasefire he was near tears on a journey from Dublin to Belfast and unable to face a party meeting.
Mr Gibney was speaking at a discussion event 'Recalling the Ceasefire' in the West Belfast Festival this afternoon organised by the Falls Community Council.
He and fellow senior member Tom Hartley were at a party planning meeting in Dublin when news of the 1994 IRA ceasefire broke.
"The meeting ended quickly and as I listened to the radio on the journey the emotional reaction in me was quite overwhelming. I wasn't in tears, but they were suppressed.
"It was an earthquake in how it shook me up. My head told me what the IRA had done was right but my head said, well, not so much it was wrong but, unsure.
"On the Sunday I felt a real compulsion to go down to the Republican Plot (in Milltown cemetery) where I quietly remembered all the young volunteers I knew who had died. I felt a real sense of emptiness.
"It took me some time to become convinced that we were on the right path. It was such a turnaround and there had been no real preparation for it."
