Reynolds casts on the power of Sinn Fein's leaders

his frustration with the IRA when he admitted his disappointment that

the Downing Street peace declaration had not yet borne fruit.

He also cast doubts on Sinn Fein's ability to exert control over the

IRA and deliver peace.

As the first Irish Prime Minister to address the British-Irish

inter-parliamentary body in Dublin yesterday, he told the MPs: ''There

are worrying signs of a return to tit-for-tat murders.''

He vigorously defended the agreement with Mr Major as removing ''any

vestige of justification for continued violence by either republican or

loyalist paramilitaries''.

In a speech, which was warmly appreciated by the British delegation,

Mr Reynolds questioned the capacity of Sinn Fein, the IRA's political

wing, to deliver a permanent cessation of violence.

''The best ever opportunity for peace is being put in danger,'' Mr

Reynolds said, urging the IRA to accept that coercion would not produce

a united Ireland.

Mr Reynolds said he sympathised with the growing public scepticism

about the sincerity of Sinn Fein's talk about peace while IRA violence

was on the rise again.

''How can we be confident in the good faith of the republican

movement, when members engage with increasing frequency in continuing

murder while peace is being actively discussed?'' he asked.

''Are these events a sign that the unity and discipline in that

organisation (the IRA) is not as strong as is often supposed? Do they

have the ability and coherence to agree to peace, on a basis that either

of our democracies could accept?''

Addressing himself to loyalist terrorists, Mr Reynolds said their

''nightmare'' of being forced into a united Ireland against the will of

the majority Protestant population would never happen. ''The people of

the South do not want it to happen, and will not allow it to happen.

They have no justification for murdering innocent people.''

Northern Ireland Secretary Sir Patrick Mayhew also renewed his call to

the IRA to abandon violence. He said: ''To continue with violence is not

only to continue on a course that inflicts profound evil, it is to

continue to exist in a political cul-de-sac.''

Sinn Fein, however, insisted the blame for the continued conflict lay

with the British Government. Party chairman Mitchel McLaughlin said Sinn

Fein accepted there was a yawning gap between itself and the British

Government that had to be bridged, but that the Government had been

''inflexible''.

Meanwhile the killing continued.

A man was gunned down late last night in a car at Springfield Park on

the Roman Catholic side of the ''peace line'' between Catholic and

Protestant areas.

The RUC said the car was turning at the end of a cul-de-sac when it

was fired on from two points on the loyalist side of the divide.

The shooting appeared to be a loyalist retaliation for the Irish

National Liberation Army killing of a man and wounding of his son-in-law

as they worked in a fishing tackle shop at the Northcott Centre,

Glengormley, near Belfast.

The dead man was named as Mr Gerry Evans, married and in his 40s, who

opened the shop only last week. The injured man, a Protestant, was said

to be ''ill but stable''.

It was the seventh murder in the past week carried out by republican

and loyalist terror groups.

In a Belfast court, Royal Marine Derek William Charles Adgey, 23,

faced charges of conspiracy to murder and was remanded on bail into

military custody.

The charges included conspiring to murder a Mr Brian Gillen;

conspiring to murder a person or persons he suspected of being members

of the IRA at a house in west Belfast; conspiring to murder taxi firm

employees; and collecting information about persons he suspected of

being members of the IRA which would be useful to the Ulster Freeedom

Fighters in carrying out murders.