A woman whose father was shot by the IRA near a republican cemetery plot in Coalisland says an Easter speech delivered at IRA graves there by Michelle O'Neill shows the First Minister does not represent her "whatsoever".

On Saturday the First Minster appeared at a commemoration at a Republican plot in Coalisland Cemetery, Co Tyrone. She was pictured making a speech next to the graves of IRA men who were shot and killed by the SAS in Clonoe in 1992, minutes after they’d pumped 30 rounds of armour-piercing tracer ammunition from a Soviet-made heavy machine gun into Coalisland police station.

The case made headlines earlier this year after a coroner ruled the SAS weren’t justified using lethal force against the armed gang.

Addressing a crowd of around 50 at the cemetery on Saturday, the First Minister said they had come together to remember "all of those who have struggled for our freedom” and “honour the sacrifices that were made by those during Easter week of 1916, but also in every generation before and since”.

placeholder image — First Minister Michelle O'Neill has been slammed for speaking at a Republican Easter commemoration held at the graves if the IRA's Clonoe gang.

Her decision to speak next to the Clonoe gang’s graves was slammed on Sunday by both the TUV and DUP.

Serena Hamilton's father was shot by the IRA in Coalisland only a few miles away from the graveyard.

She was only seven when she got the news her father had died in 1977.

Her father, David Graham, was a 38-year-old part-time UDR soldier who was shot while working in a Coalisland cement yard and died 10 days later.

"My mum came in and said, David's gone,” she said. “Then I remember curling up in a ball, and thinking that I was never going to see my daddy again. It was just totally devastating and heartbreaking. I was his only daughter, and I was a real daddy's girl."

She has suffered a range of health problems since, including a heart transplant, conditions she traces back to the ongoing trauma.

"He has not been there for any of the major milestones of my life," she added.

"So as First Minister standing there making that speech, she doesn't represent me whatsoever. It's hurtful."

"Sinn Fein has never offered any apologies or addressed the many people that the IRA murdered in Coalisland," she added.

Kenny Donaldson, Director of victims groups the South East Fermanagh Foundation (SEFF), said that when Michelle O’Neill attended the Royal British Legion's Remembrance event at the cenotaph in Belfast last year, he warned that it was not a decision taken by republicans in isolation from their wider objectives.

“Our stance has been vindicated; their objective was to try to portray others as disingenuous should they then question her attendance at Republican commemorative events like this one,” he told the News Letter.

“The First Minister did not choose to speak at a memorial gathering where the focus was the 1916 Easter uprising but rather she chose to speak at a Republican plot of Provisional IRA members shot dead after having been involved in an attack upon Coalisland RUC station.

“There is no equivalence between the actions of terrorists and legitimate soldiers. And we’ve forever been clear and consistent that the latter should be held accountable when acts of criminality are committed." he added.

Sinn Fein was invited to respond.