Sinn Fein Moves Away From IRA

BELFAST, Northern Ireland — Leaders of Sinn Fein, the party linked to the Irish Republican Army, have stepped down from the IRA command in a probable prelude to a new peace move, officials said Tuesday.

Justice Minister Michael McDowell said senior police officers had told him that Sinn Fein leaders Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness, as well as Irish lawmaker Martin Ferris, recently were replaced on the IRA’s ruling seven-member command.

Adams has always denied IRA membership, but several authoritative histories of the Sinn Fein-IRA movement identify him as a senior commander of the outlawed group since the mid-1970s.

McGuinness has acknowledged being an IRA commander. He served two short prison terms in the mid-1970s for membership in the group and an eight-year term for trying to smuggle a shipload of weapons from Boston to Ireland in 1984.

Adams, speaking before McDowell’s comments, denied reports that he, McGuinness and Ferris had stepped down, saying, “We can’t stand down from a body of which we were not members.” The apparent effort to increase distance between the leaders of the IRA and Sinn Fein comes ahead of a widely expected peace declaration from the IRA command.