Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
DUP: Sinn Fein are dripping with hypocrisy
SINN Fein are “dripping with hypocrisy” over calls for members of the Irish Government to quit after breaching Covid-19 lockdown rules, an MP said yesterday.
The DUP’S Carla Lockhart was reacting to the party’s Republic of Ireland Health spokesperson David Cullinane’s call in the wake of a golf dinner in which more than 80 people, including senior figures in the Irish Government and judiciary, were present.
Taoiseach Micheal Martin and Tanaiste Leo Varadkar said the event in a Galway hotel on Wednesday night should not have happened.
It has resulted in a political crisis with Dara Calleary resigning as Agriculture Minister and Jerry Buttimer quitting as Seanad Leascathaoirleach, or deputy chairman.
IRONY
Ms Lockhart said: “Sinn Fein is certainly a partitionist party when it comes to irony.
“Sinn Fein’s demands on Irish government ministers to resign for breach of Covid-19 guidelines begs the question why two different standards by the same party in two different countries?
“If ministers who breach the rules must resign there, why not here?
“The funeral of Bobby Storey saw dozens of Sinn Fein representatives in Northern Ireland, and indeed some from the Irish Republic, breach guidance and regulations.
“Most notably it included Michelle O’neill, the Deputy First Minister, who for weeks had been urging the public to rightly obey the huge demands placed upon the ordinary man and woman on the street.
“True to form, Sinn Fein brazenly ignored the public outcry at the double standards and demands for resignations.
“That Sinn Fein now demand resignations of those who, like them, breached the guidelines is quite remarkable.
“It is utter hypocrisy and the public see it as such.”
Ulster Unionist leader Steve
Aiken added: “Sinn Fein certainly aren’t in any position to jump on their very high, hypocritical horse.”