McDonald says sorry over ‘busy pathways’ at funeral
SF’s O ’Neill rejects DUP call to step down over ‘social distancing breach’
SINN FÉIN leader Mary Lou McDonald has apologised for the hurt caused by photographs of “busy pathways” at the funeral of Bobby Storey in west Belfast earlier this week.
The party has been caught up in controversy over social distancing concerns at the funeral and photographs from the funeral in west Belfast showed hundreds lining streets.
Sinn Féin president Ms McDonald, her predecessor Gerry Adams, Sinn Féin vice-president Michelle O’Neill, the party’s finance spokesman Pearse Doherty and MLAs Conor Murphy and Gerry Kelly were among the mourners.
The PSNI is conducting an investigation over the social distancing concerns.
“Can I firstly say that I am acutely conscious of everyone who has lost a loved one and buried them in the most difficult and heartbreaking and lonely of circumstances at the heart of the pandemic,” the party leader said on ‘Newstalk Breakfast’. “The very fact that people could not have church services, if that is what they wished, or even enter cemeteries or crematoriums was incredibly, incredibly hard.
“Can I also say that I do understand that looking at the images of very busy pathways in west Belfast and taking all of that in obviously has jolted and has caused some hurt among some of those families and for that I am very sorry.
Grieving
“That certainly would never have been my intention, Michelle’s intention or, let it be said, the intention of the Storey family as they laid Bobby to rest.”
She added: “After everything that people have been through and particularly bereaved families, I mean my God, nobody wants to cause hurt or upset or any further pressure on families who are still grieving.”
She said the PSNI was in touch with funeral organisers.
“Every effort was gone to, to manage and minimise the crowds and it was streamed online. Social distancing when people come out in those numbers is very, very difficult, if not in fact impossible, so I understand the anxiety looking at that.”
While the DUP has called on Sinn Féin vice president and deputy First Minister Ms O’Neill to step down, in a statement yesterday morning she said that she kept to all regulations at the funeral, despite a photograph of her taking a selfie with supporters circulating online.
“If the regulations had prevented me from attending his funeral I would have obeyed those regulations. At the funeral and Mass I kept to the regulations as I have advised others to do.
“The PSNI will look into all of this,” she said.
She also said she was sorry for grieving families experiencing “more hurt”.
“No family’s grief is more important than another.”
However, DUP leader Arlene Foster suggested Ms O’Neill had not gone far enough.
She said there was “no escaping the fact that trust and the creditability of the Executive messaging has been totally undermined by the Deputy First Minister” and that was not rectified by the comments.
“In our view the Deputy First Minister has not grasped the depth of feeling and widespread anger that exists across all communities in Northern Ireland,” she said.
“There has been no recognition that regulations and guidelines were broken and the Deputy First Minister cannot escape that reality.”