Event honouring former TD and IRA member Ferris ‘a slap in the face to Garda families’ - Harris

An event in Co Kerry honouring former Sinn Féin TD and ex-Provisional IRA member Martin Ferris “is a slap in the face to Garda families”, according to Fine Gael’s Simon Harris.

Hundreds of people, including leading figures in Sinn Féin, attended a “closed door” event in Killarney on Friday night to honour the “lifetime of struggle” of Mr Ferris and his wife, Marie.

Tickets were bought by party leader Mary Lou McDonald and deputy leader Michelle O’Neill, according to the local branch of Sinn Féin in Kerry. Gerry Adams, the former Sinn Féin President, also attended the event.

Ferris (70) was twice jailed in the 1970s for his membership of the IRA.

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He was handed down a ten-year sentence in 1984 for his part in attempting to import tonnes of explosives, firearms and ammunition on board the fishing vessel The Marita Ann.

He was elected to Kerry County Council in 1999 and in 2002 to the Dáil, remaining as a TD until 2020.

Ferris collected two of the killers of Detective Garda Jerry McCabe upon their release from Castlerea Prison in 2009.

At a press conference at Fine Gael’s Ard Fheis in Athlone, Mr Harris, the Higher Education Minister, was asked about the event.

He said: “I don’t think you’ll find any members of the Fine Gael parliamentary party ever attending celebrations for somebody who collected from prison those convicted of killing a guard.

“I think it think it is a slap in the face to garda families right across the country and to people who stand for law and order,” he said.

He also said: “It gives you a little bit of an insight into the sorts of functions that Deputy McDonald has attended” and he asked: “Would she attend them as Taoiseach?”

Mr Harris said that nobody he would ever vote for as Taoiseach would attend such events.

Asked if it is time for Sinn Féin to apologise for the actions of the Provisional IRA rather than honouring its members, Minister for Justice Helen McEntee said Sinn Féin have been asked “time and time again” to do so and “have refused”.

“We can put the question to them again but what’s clear is that they have no intention of making these kind of apologies and ... I think it’s for individuals to take exactly what they want from that.

“But to me it’s very clear what it means.”

Mr Harris said Fine Gael’s concerns about Sinn Féin are not just about the past but how they would behave in the future.

He argued that Sinn Féin is in favour of higher taxes on jobs and is a populist party.

Mr Harris added: “The only person who thought their energy plan was a good idea was Liz Truss and that didn’t go very well.”

This was a reference to Sinn Féin’s call for energy prices to be capped at pre-energy crisis levels.

Former British Prime Minister Truss’s Government implemented an energy price cap in the UK as part of a mini budget that sparked economic turmoil.