Questions for Sinn Fein after TD renounces ‘Óglaigh na hÉireann’ claim

Although that inscription is engraved on the headstone of former PIRA leader Martin McGuinness, a Sinn Fein TD told RTE this week that his party recognises the Republic’s Irish Army as the only legitimate Óglaigh na hÉireann.

David Kelly’s father, Private Patrick Kelly, 36, was shot dead along with trainee Garda Gary Sheehan, 23, in Co Leitrim as they attempted to rescue a businessman who had been kidnapped by an IRA gang.

He described images of the McGuinness headstone, and the ongoing use of the Óglaigh na hÉireann name for IRA commemorations, as “hurtful and offensive”.

During an RTE interview on Tuesday, Waterford TD David Cullinane said: “There is only one Óglaigh na hÉireann, and that is the Irish Army. That is my view, and that is Sinn Fein’s view.”

The interview ended without Mr Cullinane being asked why the name is still being used on Sinn Fein literature advertising commemorations.

Last week, a Wexford Sinn Fein event was organised to commemorate ‘Óglaigh na hÉireann’ member Edward O’Brien – who was killed in 1996 when an improvised device he was carrying exploded prematurely on a bus passing through central London.

It was cancelled after Leo Varadkar branded the commemoration “deeply offensive” in the Dail.

Mr Kelly said Mr Cullinane’s comments pose more questions than they answer.

“Sinn Fein needs to be clear – is there only one Óglaigh na hÉireann, or is there another one north of the border that deserves to have the same title?” he said.

“You can’t say you claim loyalty to the Defence Forces on one side of the border and honour terrorists as members of Óglaigh na hÉireann on the other side of the border.

“Is he saying there were two Óglaigh na hÉireanns, on either side of the border during the Troubles, operating side-by-side?”

In 2011, Mr Kelly confronted presidential candidate Martin McGuinness during a campaign trail event in Athlone – demanding information about the murder of his father.

Commenting specifically on the McGuinness headstone, Mr Kelly said: “He was claiming to be a member of the same organisation as my father. I find that very offensive and very hurtful.

“We are victims of the IRA, and seeing online commemorations, remembering [IRA] people as ‘Óglaigh na hÉireann’ is re-victimising us again.”

Mr Kelly added: “In recent years there haven’t been as many public [IRA] commemorations because they are trying to downplay it. Their main objective now is to be the government – down-playing those issuing about the bloody past.

“There is also a bill going through the Seanad... to make it illegal for any body, or any organisation, to use the term Óglaigh na hÉireann.

“Last year [in August] the president of Sinn Fein [Mary Lou McDonald] said she would help our family in any way she could. and I put it to her again, what action has she taken to help us get truth and justice for a member of the real Óglaigh na hÉireann?

“I’ve seen nothing.”

During the News at One interview with RTE radio on Tuesday, Mr Cullinane said: “The IRA is gone. It is not coming back. We have a peace process that we can all celebrate.

“Of course, there are families who are bereaved, families who lost people, families who will want to remember those who were casualties of the conflict and people who lost their lives, and I understand the sensitivities around all of that, but there is only one Óglaigh na hÉireann – that is the Irish Army.”

He was asked why that term was used within an invitation that was endorsed and supported by Sinn Fein in Wexford, and responded saying: “I didn’t see that, I wasn’t part of that commemoration, but my understanding is that it was cancelled. My view is that we have to be very sensitive about how we come at all of these issues.”

Ulster Unionist justice spokesperson Doug Beattie said: “Once again Sinn Fein is demonstrating what it itself might term a ’partitionist mindset’ with a different message for voters depending what side of the border they are speaking to.

“The words etched on Martin McGuinness’s headstone indicate that as recently as April 2017, Sinn Fein – in Northern Ireland at any rate – regarded the Provisional IRA as the ‘Oglaigh na hEireann.’”

Mr Beattie added: “If Sinn Fein has indeed finally accepted the legitimacy of the Irish Defence Forces, then it follows logically that any other group seeking to usurp the name ‘Oglaigh na hEireann’ must be deemed by Sinn Fein to have no right to use it. “That might come as a bit of a blow to some people, especially if this is an all-island policy by Sinn Fein and not just one to appeal to voters south of the border who have always regarded the Irish Defence Forces as the only body ever entitled to the name ‘Oglaigh na hEireann,’ and some of whom vote for Sinn Fein in spite of the IRA’s bloody past record, rather than because of it.”

Sinn Fein has not yet responded to a request for comment.

READ: Son of soldier murdered by the IRA condemns ‘history re-write’

READ: Martin McGuinness told me ‘to move on’

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