Lurgan bomb: Sinn Fein criticised for condemning incident while embracing police attackers
There is an “element of hypocrisy” in Sinn Fein’s condemnation of this week’s attempted bomb attack in Lurgan, it has been claimed.
Former Assistant Chief Constable Ray White made the comments to the News Letter, saying that the party cannot “square the circle" of condemning present-day dissident attacks while endorsing the IRA’s past campaign.
He was echoed by Carla Lockhart MP who, like him, recalled the treatment meted out to the likes of proxy bomb victim Patsy Gillespie by the PIRA.
On Monday night, a delivery driver was threatened at gunpoint in Lurgan’s Kilwilkie estate – a republican stronghold – and ordered to transport a crude-but-viable bomb to the town’s police station.
He did so, and upon arrival alerted the station’s security staff to the bomb, which did not detonate.
In the wake of the attack, Sinn Fein MLA John O’Dowd said: “Those behind this morning’s actions represent no one but themselves, and stand isolated from the community.
“Progress will not be stymied by these people, Lurgan will continue to move forward."
He added: “And I want to offer my solidarity to the van driver who went through a terrifying experience."
There was condemnation from other Sinn Fein quarters too.
Mr White, the former head of Special Branch, told the News Letter that the attackers on Monday are a “continuation” of the PIRA; a “rump” of the old organisation, still clinging to the “redundant ideology” of constitutional change by force.
He said the attack was a “publicity stunt” ahead of this year’s Easter Rising commemorations, adding there is an “onus” on people in Kilwilkie in Lurgan to report information or suspicions to police, even anonymously.
Of Sinn Fein’s condemnation of the attack, he said there is an “element of hypocrisy in it”, in that the party will celebrate “those martyrs, as they would call them, who were engaged in exactly the same activity”.
He said: “It’s hard to square the circle there: you condemn people for doing what [the IRA] did for 30 years…
"You can think of Patsy Gillespie. There's been a number of those what you’d call proxy attacks where innocent members of the public were strapped into vehicles and ordered to drive to police stations or police checkpoints.”
He added that while “it’s good to see they condemned it,” at upcoming Easter events the party will be marking “the passing of those that did exactly the same thing – and will not be condemning them for having done it”.
Ms Lockhart, MP for Upper Bann, said: “Whilst I recognise and welcome the condemnation from across the political spectrum, I can’t help but think that today we have Sinn Fein condemning this madness whilst eulogising those who carried it out in the past.”
She too cited the Patsy Gillespie case, adding that "Sinn Fein described him as a ‘legitimate target’ because he worked in the army’s canteen”.
Father-of-three Mr Gillespie was strapped into a van and forced to drive a bomb into a checkpoint on the border between Londonderry and Donegal in 1990.
He tried to warn them to run, but was killed along with five soldiers when the device detonated.
Sinn Fein has been invited to comment
Justice minister Naomi Long described the attack as “abhorrent” on a visit to the station.
“It shows a complete disregard for the well-being and safety of everyone who lives in the town,” she said.
“Over the years, we have seen how lives have been lost in similar incidents. Had the device used in this incident exploded prematurely, it would have resulted in similar devastation.”