Sinn Fein and SDLP at war over remarks

Sinn Fein and SDLP at war over remarks

7 June 2017

A ROW has erupted on the eve of tomorrow’s South Down Westminster election between the SDLP, Sinn Fein and the Loughinisland Justice Group.

Sinn Fein’s Chris Hazzard and the Loughinisland group — set up in the wake of the Loyalist murder of six men at The Heights Bar in the village in 1994 — are unhappy with a statement issued by South Down SDLP MLA Sinead Bradley and a letter sent by her party to voters in Downpatrick.

The Loughinisland group has expressed concern about the letter, claiming it contains criticism of Mr Hazzard who was absent from a vote at the Assembly last October on special status for Northern Ireland after Brexit while he was meeting the British Government on their behalf.

In her statement, Ms Bradley said she does not make any specific reference to the Loughinisland families, explaining it was issued in response to an earlier one from Mr Hazzard and Sinn Fein which she described as “nasty, insensitive and divisive.”

The MLA insists she had previously asked how Mr Hazzard had voted in the EU Referendum, not why he had missed the vote in the Assembly.

She continued: “I asked Mr Hazzard to place on public record how he voted in the EU Referendum, given that Sinn Fein were firstly an anti-EU Party then pro-EU, jeering at SDLP calls for special status and then supporting them. Mr Hazzard, as I correctly pointed out as a matter of fact and not opinion, was not present to vote for the SDLP motion on special status that lost by one single vote. 

“I deliberately did not speak of unfounded rumours that appear to have been peddled from members within Sinn Fein that suggest Mr Hazzard voted for a Brexit. Instead, I offered a public opportunity for much-needed transparency.

“Following this perfectly legitimate question a public statement was released by Mr Hazzard that totally deflected from the question posed. Rather disturbingly however, he chose to bring into the debate a group of individuals who are seeking justice for their murdered love ones.”

Ms Bradley declared: “This is lowest form of electioneering I have ever had to challenge. Even allowing for the heat of an election period, this action shows a serious lack of good judgement from Mr Hazzard. Families of the victims of the atrocity he referred to have always had the full support of the SDLP and other parties and their plight cannot be dragged into a political debate for electioneering purposes.” 

Calling for an immediate retraction, Ms Bradley added: “Disregarding the feelings of relatively few to generate scandalous emotive headlines in a bid to capture the short term support of many is crass. The only decent thing left to do is to remove the offending statement and directly apologise to the families affected. 

In response, Mr Hazzard said while he was disappointed the SDLP has tried to score political points “off the backs of victims,” he was not surprised.

He said he would never apologise for representing the Loughinisland families in their pursuit of truth and justice and would continue to engage with the British Government at all necessary levels.

He added: “The SDLP should reflect on the fact that they have caused so much distress to victims and I would urge Margaret Ritchie in particular to distance herself from the efforts to exploit this issue.”

Emma Rogan and Aidan O’Toole from the Loughinisland Justice Group have demanded the SDLP retract criticism of Mr Hazzard and have described the content of the letter circulated by the party in Downpatrick as “nasty and tasteful.”

Ms Rogan argued what was “particularly annoying” was that she had already explained why Mr Hazzard was absent from the vote in the Assembly last October.

She continued: “Ms Bradley was critical of Chris on social media for missing the vote on the SDLP motion and I explained his absence was because he was meeting the British Government on behalf of the victims of the Loughinisland massacre, seeking accountability following the publication of the Ombudsman’s damning report into the 1994 mass killing at the Height’s Bar.”

She added: “The SDLP blatantly ignored my attempts at clarifying the situation and instead of retracting its statement, pushed ahead with exploiting Mr Hazzard’s absence by issuing a letter on the eve of an election.

“In so doing, they have greatly angered the families and have caused a good deal of distress. I believe the SDLP have resorted to using dirty tricks in order to score cheap political points.

Mr O’Toole called on SDLP South Down Westminster election candidate Margaret Ritchie to distance herself from Ms Bradley’s remarks and retract the letter sent to homes in the Downpatrick area.