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Updated 8 minutes ago
Foreign Minister Simon Coveney has said that an incendiary tweet sent by a Sinn Féin TD about two historic IRA attacks on the British Army is “another case, unfortunately, of the slip of the mask.”
Sinn Féin TD for Laois / Offaly Brian Stanley sent out a tweet on Saturday celebrating two attacks.
Since then, the tweet has been removed, but DUP leader Foster called it “embarrassing” and Foreign Minister Simon Coveney “insensitive.”
Stanley, who is also the chairman of the Dáil Public Accounts Committee, tweeted about the centenary of the 1920 Kilmichael ambush.
He wrote to his 3,700 followers: “Kilmicheal (sic) (1920) and Narrow Water (1979) the 2 IRA operations that taught the electives of the () British Army and the establishment the cost of occupying Ireland. Too bad they all learned so slowly. “
I will write to Ceann Comhairle del Dáil about this embarrassing tweet. Although eliminated, it is outrageous that someone with such distorted views can occupy a high-level position in the Dáil. SF talks about respect and equality, but there are not many signs of respect for the victims. pic.twitter.com/dqMdWLI4rp
– Arlene Foster # We will meet again (@DUPleader) November 29, 2020
In a statement yesterday, Stanley said: “I apologize for the content of an inappropriate and insensitive tweet I sent yesterday.”
Speaking to RTÉ Radio One’s Morning Ireland, Coveney also criticized the comments, calling them “something really insensitive and stupid to tweet.”
“Brian Stanley is a senior TD at Sinn Féin, he’s the chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, he should know more than this,” Coveney said.
Sinn Féin speaks publicly and under Dáil’s record all the time about the need for a legacy infrastructure to deal sensitively with the past in Northern Ireland. They talk about reconciliation, but a high-ranking person from Sinn Féin comes out with this bile on social media, which is really about division and hatred, ”he said.
This is another case, unfortunately, of mask slippage.
“There are many cases in Sinn Féin that I think they want to move towards reconciliation and they are generous about it, but there are some that are clearly not,” Coveney said.
“This is really useless in terms of what we are trying to do in Northern Ireland in particular, in the context of implementing a legacy infrastructure that can help victims’ families on all sides to move forward on the basis of a true reconciliation”. he said.
The Kilmichael ambush was an attack carried out by the IRA during the War of Independence in which 17 members of the Auxiliary Division of the Royal Irish Police were killed.
The Narrow Water ambush took place during the riots and saw 18 British soldiers killed by the IRA near Warrenpoint, in 1979.
The attack took place on the same day that the Provisionals blew up a fishing boat off the coast of Mullaghmore in Co Sligo, which killed Lord Louis Mountbatten, a second cousin of Queen Elizabeth who served in two world wars.
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Anger DUP
DUP leader Arlene Foster also angrily responded to the tweet, signaling her intention to bring it up to Ceann Comhairle.
She tweeted: “I will write to Ceann Comhairle del Dáil about this embarrassing tweet.
“Although eliminated, it is outrageous that someone with such distorted views can occupy a high-level position in the Dáil. SF talks about respect and equality, but there are not many signs of respect for the victims ”.
Stanley’s tweet received more than 500 likes on the platform and was shared nearly 400 times.
A Sinn Féin spokesperson said: “We note that Brian Stanley has deleted a tweet that was inappropriate and insensitive, and that he has apologized.
“We all have a responsibility in this Centennial Decade to remember and commemorate the past in a respectful way.”
Includes reports from the Press Association
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