Threats to Sinn Fein 'very real'

Sir Hugh Orde answered questions on BBC Newsline's i-Generation

Police are treating threats made by dissident republicans to the Sinn Fein leadership as very real, Chief Constable Sir Hugh Orde has said.

Republican sources say threats to senior Sinn Fein members have come from disaffected IRA members who left the organisation in recent months.

Sir Hugh said the dissidents were "determined to wreck everything that has been achieved in Northern Ireland". He was speaking on BBC Newsline's i-Generation webcast for young people.

"The Sinn Fein leadership say their perception is the threat against them has increased - I don't think they're wrong," he said.

"Because of where the leadership wants to take their organisation, which is down a political and an entirely proper route towards a debate on the future of the island of Ireland, there are people who don't want that to happen.

"They'd far rather do what they've done in the past, which is violence."