McElduff hailed IRA man as '˜hero and martyr'

Almost three years ago, he sparked fury when he suggested that IRA gunman Raymond McCreesh was more deserving of international recognition than many Irish Nobel prize winners.

McCreesh, who was convicted of IRA membership and attempted murder, was arrested along with an armalite used in the Kingsmills massacre of 10 Protestants by the IRA in 1976.

Mr McElduff made the comments in February 2015, after Newry and Mourne District Council voted to retain the name of Raymond McCreesh on a council playground in Newry, a decision which causing much anger among unionists.

On his blog, the then Assembly member said that for many people McCreesh was “a hero and a martyr”.

“There are Irish people in possession of Nobel Prizes for their various contributions,” he said. “As far as I am concerned, Raymond McCreesh would be more deserving of international recognition than many of the past recipients.”

Recipients of Nobel Peace Prizes from either side of the Irish border have included David Trimble and John Hume in 1998, Betty Williams and Mairead Corrigan in 1976 and Sean MacBride in 1974.

For literature they have included Seamus Heaney in 1995, George Bernard Shaw in 1925 and WB Yeats in 1923. Irish scientist Ernest Walton also won the Nobel prize for physics in 1951.

DUP MLA William Irwin said Mr McElduff’s praise for McCreesh, coupled with last Friday’s Kingsmill video, serve to show “he is little more than a bigot”.

He told the News Letter: “I am not surprised by Mr McElduff’s bigoted attitude but I am surprised that he would be so foolish as to put it on show for all to see.

“It suggests that sectarianism is rooted deep within him. He has brought further unnecessary pain to the families of the Kingsmills victims by gloating over their brutal deaths.”

Former UUP MLA for Newry and Armagh, Danny Kennedy told the News Letter: “We can trace back Barry McElduff’s record on Kingsmills and it is not a good one.

“So for him to claim that he did not intend to cause offence by posting that video on Friday is insulting.

“It was not an innocent mistake, it was done maliciously. He did it to offend and to cause hurt and distress.

“I don’t think he expected it to attract such major attention, with the story even making headlines across the Atlantic.

“The fact that the video was not taken down until the next day suggests to me that the only reason he removed it is because the party ordered him to do it.”