THE shadow Northern Ireland secretary said the London bombings should increase the pressure on the IRA finally to disarm and cease paramilitary activity.

David Liddington, the Tory MP for Aylesbury, said the explosions on Thursday had changed the context for any move by the IRA. “I hope it will add to the pressure on the Provisionals to deliver finally on what they promised seven or eight years ago,” he said.

“I think it will certainly reinforce a political climate in North America as well as in the United Kingdom, that terrorism is totally unacceptable.” The slaughter in London had been a “very vivid reminder” of just how barbaric bombs could be, he said.

Martin McGuinness, Sinn Fein’s chief negotiator, said he did not know when the IRA would issue a statement about its future. He said the situation had been complicated by disputes over Orange parades and the re-arrest of Sean Kelly, the Shankill bomber, last month.

“I do know that very serious deliberations and discussions took place within the IRA and I wouldn’t be surprised if the IRA leadership was analysing these discussions. It’s a matter for them. We’re not going to speculate about any of this except to say that we’re hoping for a positive outcome. When that comes is a matter for the IRA,” said McGuinness.

It now appears that the IRA will defer its “winding-up” statement until the end of August, after the marching season. In April, Gerry Adams, the Sinn Fein president asked the IRA to begin a consultation process on how it would achieve its aims by purely “political and democratic” activity. While the consultation has now been completed, the IRA is still deliberating on the feedback from its members.

Jeffrey Donaldson, of the Democratic Unionist party, said Sinn Fein must decide once and for all if they were democrats or if they were on the side of those who planted the London bombs.

“It doesn’t surprise me that the IRA statement may be delayed, given that republicans seem to be experiencing difficulty making a clear and unequivocal commitment to end paramilitary activity.

“But in the aftermath of what happened in London — and Adams’s condemnation of the bombings — is it not a complete contradiction that the IRA cannot announce an end to their terrorist campaign? Terrorism has never been more repudiated internationally than it is today. And Sinn Fein must decide if they are on the side of democracy or those who planted the bombs.”

Meanwhile, negotiations are continuing to try to prevent violence flaring up at this week’s parades.

In Dublin, a Department of Foreign Affairs spokesman urged marchers and residents not to put themselves in “entrenched” positions. “All members of the community have a role to play here,” he said. “We would emphasise the great achievement in Derry when all sides got together, listened to one another and exercised restraint and respect. It is a model for other areas to follow.”

Mark Durkan, the SDLP leader, this weekend asked the Orange Order not to march through contentious areas over the Twelfth — but called on residents not to hold protests if such parades go ahead.

“At a time when streets will be filled with funerals and grief in London, it would show no respect if our streets were filled with rioting and strife,” he said.

Republicans have said they might not be able to contain troublemakers from disrupting a contentious parade which passes through the nationalist Ardoyne in north Belfast. They claim that the re-arrest of Kelly — after he was photographed close to a flashpoint earlier this year — will stop other former prisoners from taking to the streets to prevent trouble.

The police are not expecting any trouble at today’s parade at Drumcree, where Orangemen have again been banned from marching along the Garvaghy Road.

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