Fury over SF visit to atrocity scene
SINN Fein members have been branded "sick" as it emerged they plan to pay a visit this weekend to Narrow Water – scene of the IRA murder of 18 British Army Paratroopers in 1979.
gra Shinn Fin, the youth wing of the party, are due to host a historical tour which will include holding an event and debate at the site of the atrocity.
The DUP has accused republicans of causing hurt and offence and revelling in the heinous crime.
South Down DUP Jim Wells said: "How would Sinn Fein react if the DUP held a commemoration at Loughgall police station to gloat over the killing of eight IRA terrorists by the SAS?"
On the same day that the Narrow Water visit sparked outrage Sinn Fein Youth was also causing controversy over a posting on its website of a picture of Culture Minister Gregory Campbell as a Nazi.
He said he was non-plused that he was annoying Sinn Fein enough for its younger members to be taking pops at him, but he said the Nazi tag was crossing the line of acceptability.
"The irony will not be lost on people that this is the youth wing of an organisation that has had fascist tendencies calling a democrat a fascist," he said.
Republicans said the DUP man's appointment as the Culture Minister was akin to making French National Front leader Jean Marie Le Pen head of race relations in France, because of Mr Campbell's record of opposition to an Irish language act and "support for Glasgow Rangers".
Sinn Fein Youth has been asked to remove the offending image, but it remained on its website yesterday afternoon.
And on the issue of Narrow Water, it reserved the right to hold a debate on the conflict at the site and discuss defining moments of the Troubles.
Mr Wells said: "Despite the green-tinted, 'Wind that shakes the Barley' interpretation of history that the Sinn Fein Youth may possess, the fact remains that they are attempting to glorify what was a cold-hearted and heinous act of murder carried out by wicked terrorists."
He said that for some time now Sinn Fein Youth has engaged in insulting behaviour which he believed was deliberately designed to have a negative effect on community relations and cause hurt to the unionist community.
"It must be very easy for a bunch of foolhardy adolescents who weren't actually alive during the Troubles to glorify past terrorist atrocities, but for those of us who lived through the terrorist campaign of murder such events evoke nothing but revulsion," he said.
He called on the Sinn Fein leadership, "including Caitriona Ruane and Barry McIlduff, who are billed as headline speakers at this event", to distance themselves from these actions.
"Everyone knows that the Sinn Fein youth wing is an embarrassment to their more senior colleagues – this after all is the group whose contribution to delivering a united Ireland has been to run around the countryside painting post boxes green."
Newcastle Sinn Fein Youth spokesman Fra Cochrane responded that Mr Wells was guilty of attempting to generate controversy and cheap headlines.
"The weekend being organised by gra Shinn Fin will include debates on a diverse range of issues involving prominent guest speakers who are taking the time to engage with young people on political and social topics," he said.
"There will also be a number of historical tours including a trip to Narrow Water Castle, which will allow for an explanation of some of the defining moments of the past conflict.
"Mr Wells needs to realise that republicans fought a justifiable war against the British war machine here in Ireland, just as the Palestinian people are currently doing in Gaza. The British Paratroop Regiment are notorious killers who, amongst a litany of other crimes in the six counties, murdered 13 innocent people in Derry on Bloody Sunday. The British soldiers killed at Narrow Water were combatants in a bloody conflict where all sides suffered."
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Monday 28 May 2012
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