Sinn Fein MP suspended for three months over Kingsmill video
A Sinn Fein MP who posted a video on social media of himself with a loaf of Kingsmill bread on his head on the anniversary of the Kingsmill massacre has said he accepts his party’s decision to suspend him for three months.
West Tyrone Sinn Fein MP Barry Mcelduff reiterated what he described as a “deep and sincere” apology to relatives of the Kingsmill victims, insisting he did not mean to cause any hurt. The suspension was announced after Mr Mcelduff attended a crunch meeting with the party leadership at Sinn Fein’s offices in west Belfast.
“Although I genuinely meant no offence, I accept that my actions were ill-judged and, while unintended, caused deep and unnecessary hurt and pain to the Kingsmill families,” he said.
The Kingsmill brand of bread shares a name with the south Armagh village that witnessed one of the most notorious incidents of the Troubles in 1976, when gunmen stopped a van carrying textile workers on their way home, identified the Protestant occupants, lined them up at the side of the road and shot them.