SF defends its tribute to IRA bomber McElwee
SINN Féin has defended commemorating a hunger striker convicted of killing a woman in an IRA firebomb attack.
The party faced a backlash after sharing a tribute to Thomas McElwee, who died 40 years ago after 62 days on hunger strike in Long Kesh prison.
In a video posted to the party’s Twitter and Facebook accounts, Mr McElwee was described as ‘kind and good-natured’ and a ‘brave young Irish patriot’.
Before his death, Mr McElwee was convicted of the manslaughter of 26-year-old mother Yvonne Dunlop, who in 1976 burned to death in a firebomb attack on a Ballymena clothes shop where she worked.
When asked why Sinn Féin still commemorates people who have been convicted of manslaughter, TD Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire said people have ‘a right’ to commemorate victims. He also said the hunger strikes were a ‘very significant’ event in Irish history.
‘We believe that every victim of conflict – their relatives, their friends, the former comrades – have a right to commemorate and remember them, but that applies equally to everyone who died in the conflict,’ he said.