Responding to Sinn Féin’s Press Association interview, TUV leader Jim Allister said:-
“Mary Lou McDonald’s aggressive comments demonstrate that for nationalists and republicans the Belfast Agreement never was a settlement but a stepping stone process towards the attainment of the IRA goal of extraction of Northern Ireland from the U.K. Only some naive unionists ever thought it was a settlement.
“On the contrary, it’s very institutions – as McDonald indicates – are transitory and aids to the process.
“The big lie in the Sinn Fein leader’s diatribe is that before the Belfast Agreement there was no democratic route to constitutional change. Both the Ireland Act 1949 and the referendum provision in the Northern Ireland Act 1973 provided such a route, but instead Sinn Féin’s IRA butchered thousands in their bloodthirsty terrorist campaign.
“The arrogance of McDonald is well illustrated by her condescending offer of a holiday on 12th July!
“Unionists have already witnessed within NI what Republican rule means – constant glorification of our murderers, no toleration of as much as a centenary stone or rose bush at Stormont, suppression of Orange culture and job discrimination by a Sinn Fein minister (Murphy). Only a fool would fall for McDonald’s ‘New Ireland’ blarney.
“Of course, the major political lesson from her remarks is how foolhardy it is to sustain in power in Northern Ireland a party dedicated to the destruction of the place they misgovern. TUV has long maintained Sinn Fein is not in government to make Northern Ireland work – quite the reverse. These comments confirm their malevolent intent.”