Ulster Unionist MLA Tom Elliott has described Gerry Adams’ comments at a meeting in Enniskillen last night as ‘offensive and shameful.’
The Fermanagh & South Tyrone MLA said:
"Even by Sinn Fein standards, last night’s comments by Gerry Adams were offensive and shameful.
“To describe unionists as ‘bastards’, to talk about ‘breaking’ them, and to describe equality as the “Trojan horse” by which to do it, amounted to quite the triple whammy.
“The fact that he made his comments in Enniskillen of all places merely adds insult to the injury. The people of Enniskillen have bitter experience of republican attempts to break them, including the mass murder perpetrated in the 1987 Remembrance Day bombing and the more than 200 unsolved murders carried out by the IRA in County Fermanagh during the Troubles.
“Gerry Adams further compounded the offence caused by saying ‘what’s going to break them is equality’ and to describe equality as ‘the Trojan horse of the entire republican strategy.’
“It is frightening that he should regard equality as a weapon. He clearly sees equality as a device or trick to be used against opponents as part of a political strategy rather than as an end in itself. This is a terrifying insight into the mind-set of the republican leadership.
“The Ulster Unionist Party is committed to equality, not because of what we can use it to achieve, but simply because it is a worthy end in itself.”