Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
I’m not justifying all IRA’S actions
SF chief defends taking on British state
SINN Fein leader Mary Lou Mcdonald has said while the IRA’S armed campaign was “justified to take on the British state” she would not support every action it took.
She added she did not live through the worst of the conflict and it is her goal “we learn from that and we never go back”.
Ms Mcdonald was speaking on RTE yesterday after remarks she made in a Sunday newspaper about the Provos.
When asked if it was justified for the IRA to kill people, she said: “It was justified, I believe, to take on the British state.
“I am not justifying every action at all. I absolutely understand the horror and pain that was visited on people and it is my absolute determination we can learn from that and never go back.”
Ms Mcdonald added as she had lived in Dublin, she had not been in a position to “take up armed conflict”. She added: “I am in the very lucky position that I have never had to make that decision.”
Ms Mcdonald said she understood why people living in Northern Ireland during the Troubles joined the IRA.
She added: “In circumstances where a whole section of society had no prospects of jobs, houses, votes... in circumstances where you had internment, plastic bullets – all of that.
“I made the simple point that any person faced with that might have volunteered with the IRA.”
Ulster Unionist Doug Beattie tweeted a number of IRA killings and asked if Ms Mcdonald would justify them, adding: “All murder is wrong be it by republican, loyalist or state.”