Sinn Fein go to PSNI ceremony for first time: 'The officers of the RUC were just as human as the ones they met today' says George Cross chairman Stephen White

​That is the view of Stephen White, chairman of the RUC George Cross Foundation, who was one of three people with police ties reacting to the fact members of Sinn Fein’s top brass had attended a passing-out ceremony for police officers for the first time.

It came 18 years after Sinn Fein officially agreed to accept the legitimacy of the police back in 2006.

Accompanying Ms O’Neill was former IRA bomber Gerry Kelly, now a North Belfast MLA and a member of the Policing Board.

As well as being part of a team sent to plant bombs across London in 1973, Mr Kelly was part of an IRA gang that stabbed and shot its way out of the Maze prison in 1983, and was later caught at weapons cache in Holland in 1986.

Ms O’Neill’s father, plus cousins Tony and Gareth Doris, were IRA members too, and she has previously said there was “no alternative” to the group’s armed campaign which killed about 1,800 people – of which roughly 300 or so were members of the police.

The RUC GC Foundation was established with the aim of "marking the sacrifice and honouring the achievements of the RUC”, and its chairman Mr White said of her attendance at Friday’s ceremony: "It is progress, and I welcome it.

"However, I hope that she and anyone accompanying her looks at the men and women at the attestation function today and is able to recognise they are no more and no less human than the police officers who joined the Royal Ulster Constabulary."

Norman Baxter, a former Detective Chief Superintendent who served in both the RUC and PSNI, told the News Letter: "I think it's another step towards rehabilitation – rehabilitating the republican movement back into lawful society.

"It's a good thing for society, but it doesn't take away the pain that the victims of republican activity have suffered.

"I think it's positive for the optics, but in practical terms if they don't actually recognise what they did was wrong then it's quite an empty gesture.

"I think what they should do is come forward with information any of their members have which would lead to the identification and prosecution of people who murdered police officers.

"That's really the sign of regret and remorse [and supporting] law and order – by helping bring people to justice."

Also reacting was Stephen Gault, who lost his father, a recently-retired policeman, in the IRA's Enniskillen bombing.

Eleven other people, all Protestants, were also killed on November 8, 1987, as they gathered for a ceremony to mark the two world wars (one victim, Stephen's old headmaster, spent 13 years in a coma before dying).

Stephen was 18 at the time, and the injuries he received prevented him fulfilling his dream of following his father into the police.

In a gathering of victims at Stormont in February 2013, he recalled the graphic details of that day.

"My father Samuel, or Sammy as he was better known by, was standing next to me when the bomb exploded," he said.

"I remember it so clearly... While we were waiting for the parade to start, an RUC officer walked past me.

"He greeted my father, and I remember asking him: ‘Who was he?’ I never got the answer. It was 10.43am."

He never heard the bomb, but woke up moments later “in the middle of a horror movie”.

“I clearly remember looking to my side, where my dad had been standing next to me – his decapitated body was lying at my feet. I knew straight away he was dead.

“I remember staring at the mayhem – I couldn’t believe what had just happened. Dead and dismembered bodies lay everywhere."

No-one was ever punished for the bombing.

Asked about Ms O'Neill's attendance at the passing-out ceremony on Friday, he told the News Letter: "Part of me welcomes it – that they are seen to be moving forward.”

But he added that Sinn Fein members “still support what [the IRA] did in the past as legitimate,” and that is “an insult to the memory of the RUC officers that were murdered".

Should she have definitively renounced such attacks in the past before attending today?

"Most definitely, yes," he said.

"I think they should have come out and condemned what was done in the past.

"I'd dread to think Sinn Fein would attend a remembrance Sunday commemoration in Enniskillen without condemning what the IRA did…

"If they'd come out prior to going to such an event and condemned it and said it was wrong, it was not justified, I'm sure the families – possibly – would accept Sinn Fein attending such an event.

"I honestly, genuinely don't think Sinn Fein are going to come out and say what the IRA did in the past was unjust. They're just not going to do it."