Martina Anderson ‘apologises unreservedly’ for ‘dirty war’ tweet over victims’ compensation

There was a furious backlash to the Sinn Fein MLA’s tweet with politicians and victims branding it outrageous and insulting.

In a statement released on Thursday morning Ms Anderson said: “I apologise unreservedly for the hurt and offence caused by my tweet to people who suffered serious harm during the conflict here.

“My comments were clumsy were not directed at them and it was never my intention to cause them any hurt.

“All victims of the conflict deserve acknowledgement of their pain and loss and I support them in their efforts to get their pension.”

Earlier a woman who lost both her legs in an IRA attack has described the tweet by the Sinn Fein MLA as “very hurtful and insulting”.

Jennifer McNern, who lost lost both legs in the bomb attack on the Abercorn Restaurant in 1972, took a High Court case to ensure that victims recieve the payments.

She told the BBC the payments were for “forgotten victims”.

“We as a group have campaigned for over 10 years for people who have been injured through no fault of their own, people who have been forgotten about and pushed aside the whole way through the peace process,” she said.

“If you see the people who are applying for this pension, they are blind, they are paralysed and they are amputees.

“That is the people who will avail of this pension when it opens.”

Ms McNern added: “I personally don’t need apologies [for the tweet], I just need the payments to be put in place.”

Last week, a judge ruled that the NI Executive Office had acted unlawfully in delaying the scheme, which was approved by Westminster in January.

Alan McBride, co-ordinator of the WAVE Trauma centre, and whose wife Sharon was murdered in the 1993 IRA Shankill bombing, said Ms Anderson’s comments were “highly insulting and insensitive” to the people he works with.

“Our lives were just in the wrong place at the wrong time, they were horrifically maimed, not one of them was involved in anything,” Mr McBride told the Nolan Show.

“They were maimed by republicans, they were maimed by loyalists, they were maimed by the state.

“They fought a very long campaign to get this pension over the line and following the elation from Friday’s court case to have this nonsense now come out from Martina Anderson I think is highly insulting.”

In Martina Anderson’s post she said the pension would “discriminate, criminalise and exclude” those with paramilitary convictions.

The Foyle Assembly member and former MEP said: “All victims should qualify for the pension.

“It reflects the Brit Gov policy & only its narrative of the conflict.

“It’s given legal protection to Brit armed forces who killed or injured or tortured Irish citizens during the conflict.

“NO to Discrimination Criminalisation Exclusion.”

She claimed it would mostly go to “those involved in collusion” and British troops, for instance paratroopers involved in shootings in Ballymurphy in west Belfast in 1971 and on Bloody Sunday in 1972.

The senior Sinn Fein member said the pensions were “mainly for those who fought Britain’s dirty war in Ireland”.

The tweet was later deleted.