SF branch honours Nazi collaborator insists DUP

NEWLY-ELECTED Sinn Fein MP Orfhlaith Begley is facing calls to drop the name of a “Nazi collaborator” from the title of her party’s local branch.

Last week, Ms Begley secured the West Tyrone seat vacated by Barry McElduff.

In 2010, her local party branch or cumann added the name of Joe McGarrity to its title “in recognition of his historical contribution”.

The Carrickmore and Creggan branch is now known as the Frank Ward/Joe McGarrity cumann.

But former DUP culture minister Nelson McCausland said McGarrity had collaborated directly with the Nazis during the Second World War.

Writing in today’s Belfast Telegraph, he said: “While Ulstermen and Irishmen, Protestant and Roman Catholic, were fighting the Nazi war machine on the battlefields of Europe, Joe McGarrity was happy to work with the Nazis and seek their support.

“It is hard to believe that in this day and age any political party would honour someone like McGarrity who collaborated with the Nazis but that is the shameful reality for Sinn Fein.

“After her election, Orfhlaith Begley said that she was ‘holding out an open hand in friendship’ to unionists. So perhaps she will reflect on the name of her local Sinn Fein cumann and demand the removal of the name of a man whose association with the Nazis should be a source of shame.”

A Sinn Fein spokesperson accused Mr McCausland of “selectively poring over history books looking for fresh excuses to remain stuck in the past”.

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