'A sick cycle of justification': UUP deputy Robbie Butler condemns Sinn Fein president's praise for leading Provo Joe McDonnell
Condemnation of Mary Lou McDonald’s comments in praise of a dead paramilitary this week has escalated, with the UUP’s deputy leader saying it fuels a “cycle of sick justification” for the IRA’s crimes.
Robbie Butler was reacting to the Sinn Fein president’s hailing of republican icon Joe McDonnell.
McDonnell frequently appears on murals, has a rebel song named after him, and a GAA under-13s contest in west Belfast has been staged in his name, promoted by the Feile an Phobail.
Writing on Facebook on Tuesday, Ms McDonald said: “On this day in 1981, Joe McDonnell gave his life on hunger strike in the H-Blocks of Long Kesh.
"A courageous son of Belfast, his sacrifice remains a beacon in the struggle for the freedom and unity of Ireland.
"Joe McDonnell will never be forgotten.”
McDonnell was a member of the IRA’s Belfast brigade.
He was interned from 1972 to 1974, but then released.
He went on to blow up a furniture shop in Belfast after a nine-man IRA team stormed the building and forced staff and customers into the basement at gunpoint.
McDonnell and his fellow IRA men then became involved in a gunfight with the RUC afterwards.
He was convicted of gun possession (but not of blowing up the business, attacking police, or threatening civilians), and was jailed.
It was in the Maze in 1981 that he embarked on a hunger strike, becoming one of seven IRA men (and three INLA ones) to die as a result.
Robbie Butler, deputy leader of the UUP and former prison officer, has now said: “The organisation that Joe McDonnell belonged to was responsible for the murder of almost 30 prison officers.
"The real heroes worth remembering are those who put on that uniform and served their communities with courage in the face of relentless threat.
"As long as people continue to hold up individuals like McDonnell as examples of achievement or sacrifice for their cause, it sends a chilling message. It forces victims and survivors from right across our society to relive the pain.
"As long as there are those who continue to eulogise those responsible for such misery and destruction, our children will be trapped in cycles of sick justification and revision of truth that cannot lead to proper reconciliation and a future free from hate.
"Reconciliation demands truth, not glorification of terror.”
Sinn Fein has been asked to comment.
A day earlier, TUV chairman councillor Allister Kyle had complained that “for his efforts to plant a bomb in a civilian area, the Sinn Fein leader holds him up as a role model – a ‘beacon’ for the kind of Ireland she wants to create”.
"That speaks volumes,” he added. “Without a trace of irony, Ms McDonald quotes McDonnell saying: ‘I am prepared to die if necessary, and I know that I may die.’
"But the grim reality is this: the hunger strikers chose to end their own lives.
"That choice was not afforded to the more than 1,700 men, women and children who were murdered by the IRA.”