Statement by TUV West Tyrone candidate Trevor Clarke:
“This weekend the youth wing of Sinn Fein tweeted about an IRA terrorist who died 26 years ago when the home-made bomb he was transporting on a London bus detonated prematurely. The Sinn Fein Youth tweet says the bus bomber “gave his life for Irish freedom”. It doesn’t explain why terror was being used to extract political advantage or how maiming civilians would achieve freedom for anyone.
“The tweet is amongst a series of events during the last month wherein Sinn Fein representatives were prominent in commemorating terrorist attacks, including at an event attended by its deputy leader at Clonoe on Sunday.
“Sinn Fein’s policy of eulogising terrorists is in stark contrast to its approach to innocent victims. Days earlier Sinn Fein members of Belfast City Council voted against proposals to remember the victims of Bloody Friday on its 50th anniversary in July. Nine people were murdered, and dozens injured when 20 IRA bombs were detonated across the city in little over an hour.
“Sinn Fein has difficulty with marking this and similar IRA atrocities because indiscriminately attacking the civilian population presents challenges in terms of repackaging the republican revisionist narrative. It’s hard to paint the security forces as the bad guys when it is they who rushed to defuse the bombs planted at bus stations, shops and restaurants by the organisation championed by Sinn Fein. Yet the same party actively commemorates and glorifies republican terrorists who created innocent victims, and does so whilst claiming to be champions of equality and progressive politics. Their actions are the epitome of hypocrisy and serve only to perpetuate individual hurt and societal division.”