What makes a 'real' republican? Ex-top officer says Sinn Fein is caught in a contradiction over 'good' vs 'bad' bloodshed

​That is the view of former top PSNI officer Jon Burrows, as Sinn Fein continues to face questions about its approach to violence in the wake of the funeral for Pearse McAuley, a former Provo prisoner.

Meanwhile the TUV has weighed in too, demanding to know why Sinn Fein is happy to praise a murderous woman like Rose Dugdale (who designed much of the IRA’s arsenal used in the 1980s and 1990s, and whose funeral was this Wednesday) but not fellow IRA member McAuley.

• Woman who helped the IRA to murder dozens of people praised by Sinn Fein as a champion of human rights and the oppressed

Pearse McAuley escaped from Brixton prison in 1991 where he was being held over an IRA murder plot.

He then murdered Garda Jerry McCabe in 1996 during a post office robbery in Limerick.

Then he stabbed his estranged wife Pauline Tully (then a Sinn Fein councillor, now a Sinn Fein TD) in 2014.

He died at home this month and his funeral was held in Strabane last Thursday, where his coffin got the traditional IRA treatment: it was draped in a tricolour with black gloves and a beret on top.

This sparked criticism from Sinn Fein TD Pearse Doherty who said McAuley is “not a republican” and the flag should “not be on the coffin” (comments echoed by Michelle O’Neill).

The News Letter has asked Sinn Fein if its objections to McAuley are because he killed a garda, or because he stabbed his wife, or both, but it has yet to clarify this.

Mr Burrows spent 22 years in the police (both the PSNI and The Met), held rank of superintendent, and ended his career as head of the PSNI internal discipline branch.

"Pearse Doherty’s comments once again highlight the contradictions in Sinn Fein’s approach to crime and victims,” he said.

"Many republicans who committed horrendous atrocities are still eulogised as the patriot dead, whilst suddenly Pearse McAuley is not considered a republican at all.

"Gerry Adams famously carried the coffin of the Shankill bomber Thomas Begley, who was buried with IRA honours. Why was Begley a good republican and McAuley not?”

He said that this “ambivalence” on behalf of the party “plays into the narrative of dissident republicans who claim politically motivated violence is morally justifiable”.

The party should just condemn violence, full stop, he said, adding: “It is time to stop riding two horses.”

TUV Bannside councillor Timothy Gaston pointed to Sinn Fein’s contrasting approach to Dugdale and McAuley’s funeral within the space of less than a week, saying: “Dugdale’s bloodthirsty role as a weapons designer for the IRA resulted in the murders of many innocent people.

"Yet today Sinn Fein figures queued up to laud her as a 'true Irish Republican' who had a 'life well lived'.

“It is rank hypocrisy for Michelle O'Neill to say that the tricolour shouldn’t have been placed on the coffin of Pearse McAuley on the same day that her party colleagues carried the tricolour draped coffin of Rose Dugdale.

"Why is it wrong to stab your wife as Pearse McAuley did but alright to blow up wives, mothers and daughters as Rose Dugdale did?”

These comments have been put to Sinn Fein, and a response is awaited.

• 'Rose Dugdale fighting for the working class? She was killing the working class!' Brother of 15-year-old Essex girl blown up by IRA speaks out

The IRA was by far the most deadly group of the Troubles.

The Book Lost lives gives a toll of 1,771 between 1966 and 1999, of which:

– 636 were civilians (358 Protestants, 198 Catholics);

– 463 were regular military;

– 176 were local UDR;

– 284 were police;

– 161 were republican paramilitaries;

– 28 were loyalist paramilitaries.