‘Nationalist fury’ at Arlene Foster over Simon Byrne meeting comments

First Minister Mrs Foster used Twitter to say she believed Harry Maguire, who was jailed for his role in the brutal killing of David Howes and Derek Wood at an IRA funeral in west Belfast, should still be in prison.

Maguire, now a director with Community Restorative Justice Ireland (CRJI), was one of a number of people involved in the talks with Chief Constable Simon Byrne on Thursday – the eve of the murder anniversary.

In response to Mr Byrne posting a picture of the Zoom video meeting on Twitter, Mrs Foster posted a report on the shocking double murder, with the message: “Harry Maguire should be in jail rather than on Zoom meetings.”

CRJI later retweeted a message of support being circulated on social media, challenging Mrs Foster’s intervention, which said: “A crass attempt at political point-scoring from the very politician who met the LCC (Loyalist Communities Council) a matter of weeks ago. I have known and admired the courageous and consistent efforts of Harry and his colleagues in @CRJIcentral for years. A man who himself is a constant target. Shameful.”

An article on the website of the Andersonstown News was equally scathing of the DUP leader, saying: “Nationalists reacted with fury today after DUP leader Arlene Foster launched a bitter broadside against restorative justice campaigner Harry Maguire.

“The outburst comes less than a month after DUP leaders sat down with the Loyalist Communities Council, the organisation which represents loyalist paramilitaries, including the UVF and UDA, to discuss the Brexit Northern Irish protocol.”

The article goes on to say: Mr Maguire was released under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement and went on to spearhead the work of the Committee for Restorative Justice in working class communities across Belfast. In that work, he has met with a succession of PSNI chief constables.

“For the best part of two decades, he has also been central to initiatives to build cross-community bridges to loyalist communities and in the efforts to encourage dissident republicans to end their campaign.”

However, former senior RUC and PSNI police officer Jim Gamble said that even if the chief constable was not aware of Mr Maguire’s murder conviction, a close aide should have let him know.

In a Twitter response, Mr Gamble said: “Hard to believe he would have known the significance of what he was doing on that day. The question is why didn’t someone else in the org tell @ChiefConPSNI that whilst reaching out is critically important doing so on that day, in that way alienated so many.”

READ: Chief constable under fire after tweeting image of video meeting

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