Pressure mounts on Michelle O’Neill as UUP and Alliance tell her to quit – but Arlene Foster doesn’t

In a joint appearance at Stormont with First Minister Arlene Foster yesterday, the deputy first minister said of Tuesday’s funeral: “I’m satisfied that my actions were within the public health guidance ... my actions I stand over”.

However, when pressed on a photo of her standing beside two men – one of whom has his arm around her – posing for a ‘selfie’, the deputy first minister admitted that was “wrong”. But she appeared to blame the man, saying that it had been “something that just happened in the blink of an eye” and “everything else was done ... in line with the public health guidance”.

Yet last night another photo emerged of Ms O’Neill and Sinn Fein president Mary Lou McDonald having their photo taken with a group of people who are standing so closely that two of them are touching.

And the Catholic Church confirmed that it had been told only 10 mourners were allowed inside churches.

Mrs Foster criticised Ms O’Neill and asked her to apologise, but both she and DUP MP Gregory Campbell deliberately stopped short of calling for her to resign.

However, the Alliance Party and the Ulster Unionists – two parties who have ministers in the Executive Ms O’Neill leads – did call for her to resign, as did some DUP backbenchers such as North Antrim MLA Paul Frew.

And, perhaps more damaging, ordinary members of the public who stuck to Ms O’Neill’s advice when burying loved ones came out to criticise what Ms O’Neill had done.

Yesterday morning Mrs Foster said Ms O’Neill and other Sinn Fein members who attended had sent out a message of “do as I say and not as I do”.

“She needs to apologise and recognise the wrong that has been done, and she absolutely needs to make amends for what happened yesterday and take steps to try and build up that credibility again,” said Mrs Foster, who then declined to say that she should resign.

However, Alliance MLA Kellie Armstrong, said on behalf of her party: “In any other democracy, it is absolutely resignation territory ... it is time for Michelle to step aside.”

Under sustained questioning on Talkback, DUP MP Gregory Campbell also repeatedly declined to say that Ms O’Neill should resign.

But Mrs Foster’s former senior spad Richard Bullick said that while it was “far from clear that any regulations have been breached by the deputy first minister, there is a pretty clear breach of the Executive guidance which is in turn a breach of the pledge of office”.

Another former DUP spad, Tim Cairns, pointed to Mrs Foster’s apparent weakness in having called on Ms O’Neill to apologise but the Sinn Fein minister having refused to do so. He said: “So, no apology, no amends made, no sanction. So what happens now? Does Arlene Foster just carry on and pretend nothing happened?”

Cork Sinn Fein TD Thomas Gould, who travelled almost the entire length of Ireland to be at the funeral, told The Echo newspaper that “incredible efforts” were made by mourners to socially distance.

And yesterday Ms O’Neill argued that much of the criticism of her had been politically motivated.

However, Brenda Doherty, who lost her mother Ruth in March without being able to be present as she died or to have a proper funeral, told Radio Ulster’s Evening Extra programme: “This is not about politics and I want to strongly say that.

“This is about somebody that I listened to from the podium asking us and saying to us ‘it hasn’t gone away – yes, we’re reducing lockdown measures, but there’s still things that need to be put in place’.

“So I went from being angry to being quite sad because I don’t want this to then give people a licence to just go and do their own thing and then suddenly we find that numbers start going up again.”

She added: “It was very, very difficult to watch because in order to follow the rules if you make them, you have to lead by example.”

During an at times fraught meeting of the Assembly committee which scrutinises the department run by Mrs Foster and Ms O’Neill, the ministers openly disagreed about what had happened on Tuesday.

DUP MLA Christopher Stalford put it to Ms O’Neill: “I was in hospital for a week and my wife and children weren’t able to come and see me because of these rules ... your credibility is shot.” She replied curtly: “That’s your viewpoint – it’s not mine.”

The South Belfast MLA also read to her a message from a constituent in the Belvoir estate in which she said that she had heeded Stormont’s advice and did not get to see her mother as she died of cancer in a hospice, adding: “To think I respected what she said ... this is a kick in teeth.”

The SDLP’s Colin McGrath quoted Ms O’Neill’s own words to her, reminding her of how she denounced others breaching her guidance as “reckless” and said that they were “killing people”. He said that she had a “moral duty” to make sacrifices in the effort to save lives.

However, Ms O’Neill insisted that she had acted appropriately, saying that earlier in the crisis “you weren’t allowed to have 10, 30 or any number of people behind your funeral cortege but you can now”.

‘You had to be there for the republican family’

Michelle O’Neill needed to be at Tuesday’s funeral of former top IRA man Bobby Storey, Sinn Fein MLA Martina Anderson has said.

Ms Anderson, a former IRA bomber who was marching in a uniformed guard of honour at the funeral, made the comment during exchanges at yesterday’s meeting of the Assembly scrutiny committee where Ms O’Neill was appearing.

She said: “Michelle, you had to be there yesterday; the republican family needed you yesterday because you gave comfort and guidance to the Storey family and to the wider republican family.”

Fellow Sinn Fein MLA and former IRA man Pat Sheehan spoke at length to eulogise Mr Storey, something to which DUP MLAs objected.

Ms O’Neill declined the opportunity to apologise to anyone who might have contracted Covid-19 as a result of being among the crowds on Tuesday.

The deputy first minister said that the things the funeral organisers could control, such as the size of the cortege and the numbers inside the church, were within the latest regulations.

Ms O’Neill insisted the cortege was limited to 30 while social distancing inside the church was “exemplary”. More than 100 people were inside the church.

Contention surrounds the fact the guidelines Sinn Fein has cited in regard to observing Tuesday’s funeral service are still in draft format, and have not been signed off by the Executive.

The draft guidance allows more people to attend church services than the limit of 10 that applied earlier in the lockdown. However, the Diocese of Down and Connor has confirmed that its churches should still have been applying the 10 number restriction to funerals on Tuesday.

A statement from the diocese said it received updated guidance from The Executive Office on Tuesday evening.

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