Alphabet soup for Sinn Fein

By Mark Devenport BBC Northern Ireland political editor

It has been a tale of two C words for republicans over the weekend - Castlereagh and Colombia.

Both have reared their head again, just at a time when Gerry Adams wants to be concentrating on an E word - the Irish election which Bertie Ahern is expected to announce in a few days' time.

The revelation that detectives investigating the raid on the Castlereagh police complex seized what look like recently updated IRA intelligence files, has sparked a political furore.

Senior Tories, such as John Major and Iain Duncan Smith, whose names are reputed to be on a list of senior Tories, obviously have cause for concern.

Mr Trimble says the conjunction of the allegations about Castlereagh and the evidence of IRA activity in Colombia could make this a 'defining moment' in the peace proces

The Ulster Unionist sceptic David Burnside spoke for many within his party when he told the BBC's Inside Politics programme that the time for sanctions against Sinn Fein had now come.

Mr Burnside wants the north-south elements of the Good Friday Agreement to be shut down completely.

'Backroom boffins'

However, the Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble is far more cautious - emphasising the need to establish the full facts about Castlereagh before jumping to any conclusions.

Nevertheless, Mr Trimble says the conjunction of the allegations about Castlereagh and the evidence of IRA activity in Colombia could make this a "defining moment" in the peace process.

Gerry Adams blames British intelligence and the Special Branch for what he regards as a dirty tricks campaign aimed at Sinn Fein - just as his party hopes to make a decisive breakthrough with voters in the Irish Republic.

However, the 'Brits', in the shape of Northern Ireland Secretary John Reid at least, appear to want to cut Irish republicans as much slack as possible.

Good bookshops

Dr Reid took succour from the fact that the Police Service say they have no indication of any intention by the IRA to return to violence.

It was - according to this reading - just the backroom paramilitary boffins keeping busy the way backroom boffins do.

All the information compiled on the list appeared to come from publications available, as the advertisements say, in most good bookshops.

Gerry Adams was strongly advised not to go to Washington where he would have had to face a barrage of hostile questions

Quite what the paramilitary boffins might have been up to in Colombia will remain unclear until the trial of the three republican suspects arrested there in August last year gets under way.

However, the impending trial has not prevented the Colombian President Andres Pastrana from accusing the IRA of training the FARC Marxist guerrillas in urban terrorist techniques.

We can expect more allegations from the Colombian authorities to be aired at the forthcoming hearing of the US Congress's House International Relations Committee, to which Gerry Adams has been invited.

All the indications are that the committee will have to reach its conclusions without the benefit of Gerry Adams' presence, especially as the hearing may coincide with the announcement of the Irish election.

Gerry Adams was strongly advised not to go to Washington where he would have had to face a barrage of hostile questions.

If the local politicians keep concentrating on the Castlereagh files in the days ahead, he might be well advised to steer clear of Belfast too.

If you have a comment about this item, send it to [e-mail]