Laying wreath is a meaningless gesture if you glorify terrorism

Now we have the laying a wreath for the Somme and get a reprise.

Why is Sinn Fein/IRA action that fails to properly address past terrorism and present terrorism idolatry welcome or positive?

Nothing that it says or does should be considered even acceptable unless and until it unequivocally condemns PIRA and all its terrorism.

The exception, as in the only thing that SF/IRA could do that would be acceptable, would be calling ‘help’ or ‘fire’ and then only for the duration of any associated emergency.

As time goes on the toleration and sanitisation of the evil of terrorist and its justification increases.

More unwelcome choruses were the UUP tributes to the terrorist David Ervine on the anniversary of his death echoing through social media and welcoming ex PUP councillors to the party without any unequivocal condemnation of the UVF.

On that note where’s DUP’s Frank McCoubrey’s renunciation of the UDA?

The following about UDA Maze prisoners doesn’t quite cut it “… anytime I ask them for support they’ve given it and I’ve seen the support they give for the Good Friday Agreement. They have to be praised …”

Some responses you get when challenging this are of the sort “well SF don’t apologise so why should he?”.

So comforting that SF/IRA set standards of rectitude in public life!

It was also hard to see unionist leaders, include the unrepentant double murderer Hutchinson in collaboration about the Northern Ireland Protocol .

The SDLP is not squeaky clean, with some representatives supporting calling a playground after a terrorist, entering into electoral pact with SF/IRA and its leader being unapologetic about carrying the coffin at a funeral with terrorist trappings.

However, I believe that there are some SDLP activists who are genuinely revolted by all terrorism.

This is more than I can say for Alliance, with so many examples embracing, including literally, SF/IRA. In a discussion Ruth Dudley Edwards once challenged Alliance about its failure to challenge Sinn Fein about IRA support. The Alliance response seemed to be mere amusement.

Another instance closer to home was when on Facebook I came across an Alliance councillor saying he hadn’t watched a video under discussion as it was ‘far right’ content.

I asked if he watched SF/IRA content. His response was: “I am absolutely astounded that there are people on here criticising me for not watching far right content. Welcome to my block list.”

How indifferent to the evil of terrorism and the pain causes do you have to be to assume a question about SF/IRA is not primarily about SF/IRA?

The biggest sanitising of evil was all those traipsing off to the funeral of the unrepentant mass murderer Mc Guinness and no, being deputy first minister does not wipe that bloody slate clean and justify that sanitisation.

Stop treating terrorists and supporters as if it is merely about political differences and stop welcoming actions from them that distract from their ongoing terrorism glorification.

l Aileen Quinton’s mother Alberta was murdered in the 1987 IRA Remembrance Day bomb in Enniskillen

l Ruth Dudley Edwards is writing a book and will return later in the summer