IRA bomber Brendan ‘Bik’ McFarlane was no hero, Deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly has said.
McFarlane, who died last Friday aged 74, was sentenced to life in prison for his role in the 1975 Bayardo Bar gun and bomb attack on the Shankill Road, which killed five people.
Following his death, Sinn Fein president Mary Lou McDonald described him as a “great patriot”, while Scottish police have been urged to investigate after a banner honouring McFarlane was unfurled at a Celtic match earlier this week.
It described McFarlane, who also took part in the 1983 Maze prison escape, as a “hero”.
Speaking to the media at a press conference following the agreement of Stormont’s Programme for Government on Thursday, First Minister Michelle O’Neill was asked if she understood the anger among some victims over the praise given to McFarlane by senior Sinn Fein figures.
“You have to be sensitive whenever you’re talking about people who have lost a loved one, whether that has been in the past or in recent days,” Ms O’Neill replied.
Read more
“I’m not going to tread on anybody’s grave. I think it’s important that we all maintain that everybody has a right to respect their dead and to remember their dead.
“In this case in particular, I’m very conscious of the fact that only in the last few days a family has laid their father to rest, three children have laid their father to rest, and a wife has laid her husband to rest.
“I’m also very conscious that, over the course of the conflict, many people have lost loved ones, and I think we need to be respectful of that and find ways to try to heal. But everybody has a right to remember their dead – that includes republicans.”
Ms Little-Pengelly said “any person that sets out to kill and take an innocent life is no hero”.
“All I would say is that I think it is important for us all to remember all of those who lost loved ones to violence, all of those who lost family members and have grieved, all of those who lost their loved ones to that unnecessary violence of the past,” she said.
“I think it’s absolutely wrong that we would glorify any of those activities, and I think most people are rightly horrified when they see such a person being referred to as a hero.
“So I want to take the opportunity to remember the victims, the innocent victims of that person, and the grief and the mourning that those families have had to endure for many decades.”
DUP MLA Phillip Brett said he wrote to Celtic’s chief executive Michael Nicholson regarding the banner, while also urging Police Scotland to investigate.
“That anyone with any sense of morality would seek to define such an individual as a hero is beyond comprehension, but given the display at their stadium, it is incumbent on Celtic Football Club to take immediate action,” he said.
“Those responsible for this disgraceful display must be identified, and Police Scotland should investigate the matter under the Terrorism Act 2006.”
He added: “There can be no place in football, or in society, for the glorification of terrorism.”
On Wednesday night at Rugby Park, Rangers fans displayed their own banner slamming the Celtic supporters who honoured McFarlane.