Progressive Unionists: Mary Lou McDonald banner ‘perpetuates division’

Sinn Fein president Mary Lou McDonald was pictured holding the banner at the St Patrick’s Day parade in New York on Sunday.

PUP chairman Brian Lacey said Ms McDonald’s actions – just weeks after she told a gathering of ‘civic unionists’ in Belfast that those who “want to refight old battles” are hindering reconciliation – laid bare Sinn Fein’s strategy to “perpetuate division and separation”.

Mr Lacey described Ms McDonald posing with what was effectively a ‘Brits out’ banner as “a textbook example of one acting in contradiction to their stated beliefs or feeling,” and said other examples included: “Demanding Irish language signs in the university while banning the sale of poppies; calling for victims’ rights while naming a children’s playpark after a convicted terrorist and demanding truth and justice for all victims while focusing exclusively on republican and nationalist victims and offering nothing to victims of IRA violence”.

Earlier this week, the Republic’s Foreign Minister Simon Coveney said the banner was “offensive” and “divisive,” while the Green Party NI leader Clare Bailey said the slogan on the banner “calls into question her genuine commitment to equality and rights”.

However, Sinn Fein vice-president Michelle O’Neill has defended her party leader, saying the banner was “about ending partition” and “not xenophobia”.

Ms O’Neill said political opponents had “tried to spin the story,” and added; I don’t think it should be a surprise to anyone that the president of Sinn Fein, a republican party, would stand behind a banner that actually says that we want to end partition.”