Rev Foster: Loughgall gang were not martyrs, but got what they were planning to inflict on others

It is true that people have a right to remember their dead, but, no one has the right to paint criminals and terrorists, bent on murdering policemen doing their duty, as ‘martyrs’ slain in the pursuit of a holy cause.

This what Michelle O’Neill did on Lord’s Day April 30th, in company with many hundreds of Roman Catholic supporters.

In truth, the incident highlights the fragile foundation upon which the whole Irish republican cause is based.

The accusations of discrimination, of pogroms and of wholesale victimisation against Roman Catholics in Northern Ireland, publicised throughout the world by the allies of Romanism, is as false and tenuous as is Sinn Fein’s claim that the armed men shot by the army at Loughgall 30 years ago were martyrs.

The dictionary defines a martyr to be “someone killed for their religious or other beliefs”.

The IRA men that night received what they were intent on inflicting on others.

It cannot be called anything other than justice.

Rev Ivan Foster, Kilskeery, Co Tyrone