DUBLIN, Ireland (AP) – Public approval for Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams has plummeted in the Republic of Ireland, according to an opinion poll published Friday that found attitudes hardening against the outlawed Irish Republican Army.

The poll of 1,098 people this week across the Irish Republic said the public approval rating for Adams, leader of the IRA-linked party, has fallen to 31 percent, down 20 percentage points from November – the biggest, quickest fall for a party leader ever recorded in an opinion poll here.

The survey, conducted by pollsters Millward Brown IMS and published in the Irish Independent newspaper, had an error margin of 3 percentage points.

Unprecedented criticism of Sinn Fein followed the IRA’s alleged robbery of a Belfast bank Dec. 20, its members’ knife slaying of a Catholic man outside a Belfast pub Jan. 30 and a police operation launched last week against IRA money laundering in the Irish Republic.

On Sunday, the Irish government identified Adams as a member of the IRA’s seven-man command. Adams denied this and rejected as unproven all other allegations against the IRA.

However, the British and Irish governments and all other political parties in both parts of Ireland have ruled out the prospect of political progress involving Sinn Fein unless the IRA disarms and disbands.

Adams called his declining popularity ratings “deeply disappointing.” He also confirmed meeting privately with the relatives of Robert McCartney, the man slain by IRA members in Belfast, and declared afterward it was “the patriotic duty” of witnesses to the killing to come forward.

However, Adams again declined to call specifically for witnesses to cooperate with Belfast detectives, reflecting the IRA-Sinn Fein policy of rejecting the police’s authority. McCartney was attacked by several IRA members in front of scores of witnesses, none of whom have been willing to tell police what they saw.

In a particularly significant shift, leaders of Northern Ireland’s largest Protestant denomination, the Presbyterians, said recent Sinn Fein denials “ring hollow.” The Presbyterians’ leader, the Rev. Ken Newell, pioneered Protestant contacts with Sinn Fein in the early 1990s but said he was “95 percent certain” that Sinn Fein was lying now.

The church said in a formal policy statement that the bank robbery “violated the law of God; subjected bank employees and their families to terror and cruelty; betrayed relationships with the (British and Irish) governments; and destroyed trust in the commitment of Sinn Fein to seek peace.”

Support for Sinn Fein remained fairly steady at 9 percent, down 1 percentage point from the last poll in the Irish Republic.

In recent years, Sinn Fein has become the biggest Catholic-backed party in Northern Ireland. South of the border it remains small, with five seats in the 166-member parliament.

In December, Sinn Fein came close to accepting an Anglo-Irish deal to revive power-sharing in Northern Ireland with Protestant leaders, a key goal of the British territory’s 1998 peace accord.

That deal fell apart when the IRA rejected demands from Protestants and the British and Irish governments to permit photos of its disarmament. The IRA also refused an Irish government demand to renounce criminal activity.

A week later, a gang stole the equivalent of $50 million – the biggest cash theft in history – from the Northern Bank. Police and the British and Irish governments blamed the IRA.

Last week, detectives in the Irish Republic impounded more than $5.7 million in British currency during raids on suspected IRA money launderers. They have not announced whether the money came from the Northern Bank.

In Friday’s poll results, 60 percent of respondents believe IRA members committed the robbery, 17 percent do not and 23 percent had no opinion. Also, 62 percent said they considered Sinn Fein and the IRA “the same organization,” while 24 percent disagreed.

—

On the Net:

Irish Independent, http://www.unison.ie/irish-independent

Sinn Fein, http://sinnfein.ie

AP-ES-02-25-05 0929EST