Ulster Unionist MLA Ross Hussey has said that convicted IRA terrorist Gerry McGeough’s comments in relation to Catholic members of the judiciary are quite disgraceful and must be condemned.

Ross Hussey, who represents his party on the Policing Board, said:

“Just as the IRA had a deliberate policy of targeting Catholic RUC officers in a bid to deter others from joining, so the IRA actively targeted Catholic members of the judiciary, such as Tom Travers, whose daughter Mary was murdered in 1984. Given the IRA’s record, and Mr McGeough’s own terrorist convictions, these comments about dealing with collaborators cannot simply be ignored.

“In an interview on an American radio show, Mr McGeough made a number of statements, including the following -   

‘There is people from republican families who are now sitting as Diplock court judges and prosecutors and all the other stuff of the day that you can't possibly imagine, and they are arrogantly passing judgement on patriots.’

He continued, ‘So, these have, again you have Irish Catholics, traitors in effect, administering British rule here in the six counties.’ 

“The interview may have made for difficult listening for those Sinn Fein politicians who lobbied for his release and who brought forward motions in support of Gerry McGeough in a number of local council chambers. In Mr McGeough’s new vision of the future ‘we get rid of these pathetic old Shinners who are just so sad it is not funny.’ One wonders what they are thinking now and what they make of Mr McGeough’s comments.

“What is truly pathetic is Mr McGeough desperately clinging to an ideology that has long been discredited and harking back to a terror campaign he participated in and which ended in failure.”