Tom Ekin: Mary Lou McDonald is not giving the leadership that we need as a society to be able to live in harmony

Mary Lou McDonald’s recently published (in an interview in the Sunday Independent when she was asked about violence such as the Enniskillen bomb) support for and justification of the IRA’s violent indiscriminate killing and destruction for some 30 years begs the question:
By Tom Ekin
Published 29th May 2020, 13:53 BST
The funeral of Marie Wilson in 1987 after the IRA Poppy Day massacre in Enniskillen. Mary Lou McDonald told the Sunday Independent it was "heartbreaking" when Marie’s father Gordon spoke about the loss of his daughter but when asked if the bomb Ms McDonald wrong said all violence is "awful". Tom Ekin asks: Does this mean we can all bomb if we want to bring about political change?The funeral of Marie Wilson in 1987 after the IRA Poppy Day massacre in Enniskillen. Mary Lou McDonald told the Sunday Independent it was "heartbreaking" when Marie’s father Gordon spoke about the loss of his daughter but when asked if the bomb Ms McDonald wrong said all violence is "awful". Tom Ekin asks: Does this mean we can all bomb if we want to bring about political change?
The funeral of Marie Wilson in 1987 after the IRA Poppy Day massacre in Enniskillen. Mary Lou McDonald told the Sunday Independent it was "heartbreaking" when Marie’s father Gordon spoke about the loss of his daughter but when asked if the bomb Ms McDonald wrong said all violence is "awful". Tom Ekin asks: Does this mean we can all bomb if we want to bring about political change?

As Northern Ireland was a democracy then, unsatisfactory maybe, she is saying that the IRA was justified to try to overthrow it.

Does this mean that if I and others don’t like a democratic solution we are justified in bombing and killing to get change?

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

I don’t like the democratic decision to Brexit, I don’t like the current democratic structure of Stormont, largely because both of these democratic decisions are likely to fail.

Letter to the editorLetter to the editor
Letter to the editor

Would Ms McDonald approve any action I might take to overthrow these democratic decisions?

But, perhaps more urgently, Ms McDonald says that a vote of 50% plus one will be enough to start forming a united Ireland.

So by her logic anyone who doesn’t like this democratic decision can be justified in aping the IRA. A really scary thought!

Another 30 years of pointless bloodshed and destruction.

We need leadership to get us to a society which can live harmoniously and productively together, Ms McDonald is not offering it.

Tom Ekin, Belfast BT9

Related topics:IRAEnniskillenNorthern IrelandBrexit