‘Warped revisionism’ claim after Sinn Fein praise for hunger striker

Coming just days after Sinn Fein vice-president Michelle O’Neill said she believes there was “no alternative” to the violence of the Provisional IRA, DUP MLA Keith Buchanan said the continuing “warped revisionism” must be challenged.

In a social media message on Monday, Mid Ulster MP Mr Molloy posted a picture of Thomas McElwee, and said: “A rare picture of Thomas McElwee who died on this day 1981 after 62 days on Hunger Strike. He was only 23. RIP.”

McElwee, from the Tamlaghduff area of Bellaghy, was jailed for his involvement in a firebomb attack that killed Ballymena woman Yvonne Dunlop.

Ms Dunlop, 27, was checking a shopping bag left at her father’s shop in Ballymena when the fire bomb went off. She only just had time to shout a warning to her nine-year-old son to escape before she was caught in the fireball.

DUP MLA Keith Buchanan claimed Sinn Fein is now “doubling down on its rewriting of history and celebration of terrorism,” as “Francie Molloy eulogises IRA terrorist Thomas McElwee”.

Mr Buchanan said: “In no other part of the United Kingdom would an MP honour a man found guilty of burning a woman to death in front of her nine-year-old child. Challenging this narrative is not about looking back but about ensuring future generations do not make the mistakes of the past.

“When Michelle O’Neill claimed there was no alternative to IRA violence she was telling us that Thomas McElwee had no alternative to firebombing shops and burning a young woman alive. Francie Molloy’s eulogising of McElwee stems directly from that warped revisionism.”

Bannside TUV councillor Timothy Gaston described the tweet by Mr Molloy, and a similar one by Sinn Fein MLA Emma Sheerin, as “beyond sick”.

Cllr Gaston said: “What did Yvonne Dunlop do to deserve to be burnt to death by McElwee and his cohorts? Yet, to this day IRA/Sinn Fein defend and glory in such vicious terrorism”.

Commenting on Michelle O’Neill’s ‘no alternative” to PIRA violence claim, UUP MLA Tom Elliott said: “Unless there is a genuine retraction of those comments Ms O’Neill should step back from her senior political role in order to provide assurance to the innocent victims of terrorism that the terrorist campaign of murder and destruction in Northern Ireland was wrong and cannot be justified.”

In response to all three unionist representatives, a Sinn Fein spokesperson said: “Under the Good Friday Agreement, everyone has the right to remember their dead with dignity and respect.

“The DUP is engaging in deflection politics from its boycott of our democratic institutions, its failure to tackle the cost-of-living crisis and preventing hundreds of millions of pounds frozen in the Executive’s bank account getting into people’s pockets.

“They should get back to work now, respect the outcome of the Assembly election, and work with the rest of us to support people who are struggling to pay their bills and to invest £1 billion in the health service to support people languishing on hospital waiting lists.”