TUV lodges complaint with Northern Ireland Local Government Commissioner (NILGC) about Sinn Fein Mid Ulster chairman Eugene McConnell closing down debate on Jim Lynagh IRA event
A formal complaint has been lodged alleging that a Sinn Fein council chairman breached his official code of conduct by closing down a council discussion about him attending an IRA commemoration.
Sinn Fein councillor for Clogher Valley, Eugene McConnell, was pictured with Sinn Fein president Mary Lou McDonald at an Easter Monday event in Carrickmore commemorating Provisional IRA member Jim Lynagh.
Photographs on social media show Mr McConnell standing behind a banner honouring Lynagh, a leading figure in the East Tyrone IRA who was killed by the SAS after leading an attack on Loughgall RUC station in 1987.
Last week the DUP said it had lodged a formal complaint on the matter with the Northern Ireland Local Government Commissioner (NILGC).
Now TUV Mid Ulster representative Glenn Moore said he has also written to the commissioner to allege Mr McConnell has breached the councillor's code of conduct.
In his letter, he said that Mr Lynagh was linked to the murders of Stormont Speaker Sir Norman Stronge and his son James in south Armagh in 1981, the murders of RUC Reservist William James Clements and Constable George Gilliland, and the attempted bombing and armed assault on Loughgall RUC station.
The TUV man argued that Mr McConnell endorsing Mr Lynagh was “wholly incompatible with his duty to act in the public interest, promote good community relations, and uphold respect for all sections of the community”.
He also alleged that when the matter was raised in the council chamber, Mr McConnell used his position as chairman to “shut down discussion” in breach of the councillors’ code of conduct.
Sinn Fein was invited to respond.
Dr Ken Funston, whose brother Ronnie was murdered by the IRA on their Fermanagh border farm, is about to publish a book on “ethnic cleansing” during the Troubles.
Profiling Lynagh, he said the IRA man was born in Monaghan town, and was almost killed by his own bomb in 1973 when only 17.
He then spent a period in prison but went on to lead the north Monaghan IRA unit with Patrick McKearney, who was also killed at Loughgall.
Some of their most notable operations, he said, were the murders of the Stronges in Tynan Abbey in south Armagh, 1981, and the attacks on Ballygawley, Birches and Loughgall RUC stations.
The so-called PIRA chief of staff at that time, Kevin McKenna, advocated the creation of a ‘free zone’ that would give PIRA freedom to carry out their attacks at will.
To implement this, unionists had to be “ethnically cleansed” through murder or intimidation.
“The cleansing of the Clogher Valley was to be the first phase and Lynagh, and his side-kick McKearney took to it with gusto,” he said.
Based in Co Monaghan, Lynagh murdered many isolated Protestants in south Fermanagh and south east Armagh, such as Henry Livingstone and William Morrison in the Tynan area.
After the Morrison murder, Mr Funston said, Lynagh spent a period in prison during which murders in the area “drastically” reduced.
Following his release, he assumed his previous role, and was only stopped at 1987 at Loughgall.
l Ken Funston and Cillian McGrattan are authors of ‘The Northern Ireland Conflict on the Margins of History, Protestant Memory on the Border’, which is due for publication in early May by Berghahn Books.