Responding to comments by Martin McGuinness about reconciliation TUV Comber Councillor Stephen Cooper said:
“The latest attempt at re-writing the past from Martin McGuinness is another example of republicans trying to sanitise their murderous past.
“The hypocrisy of an individual who refused to answer reasonable and legitimate questions about his activity in the Saville inquiry is risible at best.
“This is a deliberate ploy to agitate and rile the many innocent victims of IRA violence.
“It is far from acceptable to have the IRA’s representatives in executive government of the very entity they seek to destroy in the first instance; but to further exacerbate this with an accusation that the onus is on Unionists to reach out to an unrepentant murderous organisation is ludicrous.
“Until those within the ranks of IRA/Sinn Fein are open and honest about their barbaric past and apologise to the families left grieving and deeply affected by their campaign of ethnic cleansing and savage evil, nobody in their right mind can take this latest political stunt seriously from the republican leadership.
“Real reconciliation can only be addressed when there is a clear and unequivocal admission that there is no excuse for mass murder in pursuit of a democratically rejected political aspiration.”