Kenny Donaldson: Sinn Fein chair in Fermanagh is not the real issue

We commend your coverage concerning the on-going dispute within Fermanagh and Omagh District Council where SF/PIRA Chirman Cllr McCann has refused to retract or apologise for his pro terror utterances.
By The Newsroom
Published 1st Aug 2017, 12:14 BST
Updated 12th Sep 2017, 11:38 BST
The Enniskillen Poppy Day massacre. In 1987 the IRA blew up a building at a Remembrance Day service which killed 11 people who were standing in and around the area.The Enniskillen Poppy Day massacre. In 1987 the IRA blew up a building at a Remembrance Day service which killed 11 people who were standing in and around the area.
The Enniskillen Poppy Day massacre. In 1987 the IRA blew up a building at a Remembrance Day service which killed 11 people who were standing in and around the area.

We are clear that the next course of action must be an investigation of potential breach of the code of conduct connected with the office he occupies.

It’s getting into semantics but it’s worth noting that councillors did not walk out per say at last week’s meeting, they withdrew.

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We welcome the initiative taken by the UUP councillors followed by DUP and SDLP colleagues but we call upon them collectively to make this a line in the sand issue. How this particular matter plays out with Cllr McCann could have ramifications for councils across Northern Ireland.

Whilst Cllr McCann is receiving the focus of consternation, it isn’t he that is the real issue.

Would any SF/PIRA rep asked the same questions posed by Rodney Edwards really have answered so differently?

No the issue is and remains the unacceptability of the views expressed which amount to terrorism idolatry. These views are aired in elected chambers across Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland and occasionally in Great Britain.

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The role of chairman of a council carries with it civic responsibilities, Mr McCann to date has demonstrated an inability to be a civic leader for all, rather he is behaving to type – his code appears to be to the ‘ourselves alone’ mantra of the organisation to which he belongs –- Sinn Fein/PIRA.

The fact is that Seamus McElwaine was a serial killer who along with others murdered his neighbours because of intolerance for them – he murdered in a manner motivated by sectarian and ethnic hatred and of seeking to drive the minority community from their border homesteads.

And the fact will remain that the action to bomb Enniskillen on November 8 1987 where 11 innocents perished and a 12th died some several years later was wrong and unjustified and was motivated by sectarian and ethnic hatred of those who defined themselves as British or who were pro respect for the dead of real wars.

The attempted massacre of dozens of children in the village of Tullyhommon as they also came to honour the dead were the actions of the demonic and depraved.

Those who refuse to condemn the actions of those responsible for Enniskillen and the failed actions at Tullyhommon are complicit.

Kenny Donaldson, South East Fermanagh Foundation

Related topics:FermanaghSinn FeinNorthern IrelandUUP