Jamie Bryson: Simon Coveney’s government guilty of ‘rancid hypocrisy’ in comments on Brexit violence

Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney has been accused of “rancid hypocrisy” and using the threat of republican violence for political advantage over Brexit while condemning a loyalist bomb hoax which targetted him in Belfast.
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Police blamed loyalist paramilitaries for a security alert which led to Mr Coveney being evacuated from a venue in north Belfast on 25 March.

He was giving a talk for the John and Pat Hume Foundation on “Building the Common Ground” when a van was hijacked at gunpoint and driven to the venue. The PSNI blamed loyalists and said the UVF were suspected. A nearby funeral was also disrupted.

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“I was there to speak about the profound legacy of John and Pat as peacemakers and pioneers of reconciliation, and of the inclusive vision of the Good Friday Agreement,” Mr Coveney said today.

Irish Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney.
Photo: Colm Lenaghan/PacemakerIrish Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney.
Photo: Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker
Irish Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney. Photo: Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker

“This event was interrupted shortly after it began. A local electrician was hijacked at gunpoint by two men and coerced into driving his van, with what he believed to be an explosive device in it, to where almost one hundred people had gathered for this event — located beside Holy Cross church where a family funeral was taking place.

“As a result, an event about reconciliation was postponed, a man was traumatised and a grieving family was left praying for their loved one in a car park instead of a church. This advances the cause of no community. It is defending no principle.

“It is a shameful echo of a darker time,” he said in the Belfast Telegraph. “A time that was brought to an end by the Good Friday Agreement and the collective efforts of courageous men and women from all communities, with the endorsement of an overwhelming majority of the people of this island North and South.”

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Mr Coveney said he had intended to say in his speech that the Belfast Agreement was “achieved by us all and belongs to us all” and that it is “absolutely explicit in committing to ‘parity of esteem and of just and equal treatment for the identity, ethos and aspirations of both communities’.

“That has to mean not just tolerance, but genuine respect. It has to mean that we recognise that each tradition — unionism and nationalism — is far more than the rhetoric of their most extreme or narrow-minded proponents.”

He added: “We continue to support the European Commission and the UK Government in finding agreement — through dialogue - on the sustainable implementation of the Protocol.

“Democratic, lawful channels are there to address all concerns. There can be no excuse or tolerance for the threat of violence or disorder.”

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Mr Coveney did not acknowledge in his speech that unionists have consistently opposed the Protocol and argued that it breaches the Belfast Agreement.

But loyalist activist Jamie Bryson accused Mr Coveney of “rancid hypocrisy” in his comments on political violence.

“Everyone who supports democracy would agree with the sentiment that violence, or the threat of it, is unacceptable,” he said. “On that Simon Coveney states a well established principle.

“However, in doing so he exposes a rancid hypocrisy on his own part, and that of the Irish Government he represents.

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“It was they in the Brexit negotiations who raised the potential of IRA bombs, waving newspaper clippings of previous bomb attacks [on border customs posts] with the effect being they gained leverage for their own political negotiating position, based on a ‘risk to peace’ they had talked up. This was the genesis of the Union-subjugating Protocol.

“Simon Coveney says nothing in his comments about the Irish Government raising the prospect of IRA bombs, which benefitted the Irish and EU with disproportionate negotiating leverage.

“It is a shame that rather than raising the potential for IRA bombs, that the Irish Government- and Mr Coveney specifically- weren’t as robust at that time on the principle that the threat of violence has no place.”

Asked after the bomb hoax if he would support funding being withdrawn from UVF-linked community groups if they were found to be behind the attack, Mr Bryson has told the News Letter that he was strongly opposed to the idea.

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The Irish Department of Foreign Affairs, Sinn Fein and the SDLP were all invited to respond to his remarks about Mr Coveney.

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