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SINN FÉIN LEADER Mary Lou McDonald has said she will not remove her party TD Brian Stanley from the position of chairman of the Dáil Public Accounts Committee for her tweet about two IRA attacks on the British Army.
TD Laois / Offaly sent the tweet on Saturday, the centenary of the Kilmichael ambush in 1920, about the two attacks.
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. “
In a statement Sunday, Stanley apologized “for the content of an inappropriate and insensitive tweet I sent.”
However, since then there have been calls for Stanley to step down from his PAC chairmanship for a period of time on the matter.
Addressing the controversy this morning, Sinn Féin frontman Mary Lou McDonald told RTÉ Radio One’s Morning Ireland that “this was Brian Stanley’s mistake and it will not be repeated.”
McDonald confirmed that he will not remove him from his position as chairman of the Public Accounts Committee.
She said:
Brian is a very effective, impartial and fair committee chair. As people know, it is a very important committee. Work is critical and he is eager, and I am eager, for me to continue that work.
He added that Stanley is “more than fit” to chair the committee and that he is “extremely competent” and “extremely experienced.”
“He will continue that work,” he said.
The Sinn Féin leader said Stanley will address the controversy with colleagues on the committee when they meet tomorrow.
The co-leader of the Social Democrat, Catherine Murphy, and a member of the PAC, said it would be difficult to resume “business as usual” when the committee meets again this week.
He said Stanley stepped aside for a while “might as well be a solution to this.”
Murphy said he doesn’t think Stanley will cancel the tweet and apologize “it will be enough.”
The role of a TD and as PAC chair is a high-level position, and with that role comes responsibility, Murphy 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.
Members of the 2nd Parachute Regiment carry the flag-draped coffin of their colleague, Private Gary Ivan Barnes, in Ipswich. Private Barnes was the youngest victim of the Warrenpoint Massacre
Source: PA
Reaction
Stanley faced strong criticism from politicians both north and south of the Irish border yesterday in light of the tweet.
Foreign Minister Simon Coveney said the tweet was “another case, unfortunately, of the slippage of the mask.”
He added that it was “a really insensitive and stupid thing 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 with the past in a sensitive way 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.
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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
DUP leader Arlene Foster also furiously responded to the tweet, signaling her intention to bring it up with 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.
With reports from the Press Association
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