Ulster Unionist leader, Steve Aiken OBE MLA, has condemned Gerry Kelly MLA for publishing a tweet which glorified the actions of some of the Provisional IRA’s most notorious murderers, kidnappers and bank robbers who escaped from the Maze Prison in 1983.

Mr Aiken said:

“Gerry Kelly’s vile tweet shows the perversion of right and wrong prevalent in Sinn Fein. It glorifies the actions of some of the IRA’s most notorious sectarian killers, antagonises their victims and undermines community relations. The fact that Gerry Kelly sits on the Policing Board as he spews out this hate-filled propaganda makes his actions all the more sickening. I am in no doubt that it was designed to provoke a reaction. This is only weeks after Martina Anderson’s sick tweet slandering innocent victims. My colleague Doug Beattie wrote to the Commissioner for Standards reporting Martina Anderson and we will also be reporting Gerry Kelly and raising it at the Policing Board. I also welcome the Secretary of State’s strong words of condemnation.

“Rather than revelling in the Maze escape, Gerry Kelly should hang his head in shame at those that stabbed a prison officer and shot another in the head, led by notorious IRA criminal, Bobby Storey. 

“While Gerry Kelly continues to poison the minds of some of our young people by glorifying IRA stabbings and shootings, it traps another generation in a cycle of hatred. Today’s republican terrorists are copying their tactics straight from the Provisional IRA’s playbook whether that is their criminal activities, their antics inside prison or their disgraceful actions outside Maghaberry where a police officer was injured on Saturday. That cycle needs to be broken by acknowledging there was never any excuse for the horrific crimes committed by the Provisional IRA, rather than people like Gerry Kelly and Martina Anderson trampling over the graves of their victims and re-traumatising the living.”