Statement by TUV vice-chair Richard Cairns:
“Yesterday Martin McGuinness said those who link Sinn Fein/IRA to criminality “should put up or shut up”. How ironic, then, that today is the 26th anniversary of the Deal barracks bombing. On 22nd September 1989 the Provisional IRA exploded a bomb at the Royal Marines School of Music building. This resulted in the collapse of the building, killing 11 Marines from the Band Service – most of whom were teenagers – and wounding another 21. One of the dead bodies was discovered on the roof of a house close to the barracks.
“No one has ever been arrested much less convicted for the Deal bombing.
“McGuinness was a senior member of the IRA during that time.
“Let’s not forget either that this is the same McGuinness who just over a week ago was linked at Westminster to the Enniskillen bombing. It was claimed that the Northern Ireland Office had advised police that questioning Martin McGuinness over the 1987 IRA atrocity “would not be a good idea”.
“To claim that Sinn Fein/IRA are not linked to criminality is therefore not just inaccurate but grossly offensive to those who were killed and injured 26 years ago today and indeed countless other IRA victims in atrocities.”