Statement by TUV party secretary and North Belfast Assembly candidate Ron McDowell:
“It is an annual event for the West Belfast Festival to close with a concert of hate with thousands of young people being led in chats supporting a bloodthirsty terrorist organisation. This is highly offensive to the majority of people in Northern Ireland who have always repudiated violence. It is particularly sickening because of the reminder we have had in recent days of what the IRA actually did. Attention rightly turned to the case of Yvonne Dunlop following tweets from Sinn Fein celebrating the man convicted of her murder. How ironic that while the Western World is gripped with concern about what is likely to happen the women of Afghanistan, people in West Belfast celebrate the exploits of those who incinerated a young woman as part of their campaign!
“Every year we have a repeat of this reprehensible behaviour. Every year we have the same calls to stop the funding to this concert. Every year the fuss dies down after a few days. This isn’t good enough. Media outlets who regularly give lots of positive coverage to the Festival need to force organisers to face up to the issues raised by this concert. Those who fund the Festival – whether public or private – need to be challenged on why they are associated with an event which has had this consent as the climax for many years.
“The reality is that no one is surprised by what happened last night. We have come to expect it. That says a lot about the situation in which our country is in. We owe it to the innocent victims of the IRA to take a stand on this. It is time to get serious when it comes to the West Belfast Festival’s celebration of terror.”