The Ulster Unionist Party’s Justice spokesperson, Doug Beattie MC MLA, has described Sinn Fein calls for the UK Government to release all relevant documents about the Dublin and Monaghan bombings, as an absolute lack of self-awareness verging on hypocrisy.
Doug Beattie MC MLA, said:
“At a meeting of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice and Equality today at the Irish Parliament in Dublin, the chairman, Sinn Fein's Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin, asked the new Garda Commissioner Drew Harris if he would ‘bring something more to the calls’ to the British government and its agencies to provide all relevant documents about the 1974 Dublin and Monaghan bombings.
“It is right that all information about all Troubles related incidents should be made known if it does not endanger life. However, it is the height of hypocrisy for anyone remotely connected to Sinn Fein to demand of anyone else, that which they are not prepared to give themselves.
“Given the terrorist pasts of many of their members, plus their links to the IRA as part of the ‘republican movement’ Sinn Fein have access to a treasure trove of knowledge of murders, maimings, bombings and shootings.
“If they are serious about demanding papers and information from others, then they must reveal what they know about unsolved IRA crimes such as Birmingham, Claudy, Kingsmills, Enniskillen, La Mon and Warrington, not to mention the sectarian campaign of ethnic cleansing along the border. They should also divulge where the remains of Captain Robert Nairac GC are so he may receive a Christian burial.
“And as we remember the 25th anniversary of the Shankill bomb in which 9 innocent people were murdered, now would be a good time for the republican movement to reveal who the getaway driver was, who made the bomb, who planned the operation and who gave the go-ahead.
“If Republicans were prepared to admit their role in the 60 per cent of Troubles related deaths for which they were responsible, then they might be in a better position to demand the same of others. Until they do they will remain a party with no credibility and no integrity.”