Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald has said the people behind the gun attack on PSNI insp John Caldwell in Omagh have no support from republicans in the North or those who live along the Border.
In a strong denunciation of the attack, Ms McDonald said: “I am very confident that communities, including the communities all along the border, and all into the Northeast and the Northwest of Ireland, there is no support or sympathy for this. Those days are over. Our best days are ahead of us. And my God, anybody who cares about Ireland, or a united Ireland, has to recognise that this attack on a police officer, a member of our community, is wrong, is indefensible, and does not in any way represent progress for the cause of Ireland. I refute them, absolutely, and I condemn their actions, without any equivocation or without any qualification.”
Ms McDonald said that all communities must co-operate fully with the PSNI investigation.
“There’s no political rationale for this act ... Anybody who asserts that this is the way to advance the Irish cause is wrong, is misguided. I would ask those who carried out and any of their associates who carried out this to stop. It’s as simple as that. Stop!”
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Ms McDonald said the attack was an outrageous and vicious attack on a police officer who was off duty at the end of a training session for Under 15 footballers.
“I think it focuses our minds again on the fact that we have achieved 25 years of peace and let me say this very clearly: we are not going back. We are not going backwards … Those who carried out this attack must be brought to justice.”
Catalan independence
Ms McDonald was speaking at a joint media event in Dublin with Catalonia president Pere Aragonès following a meeting in Dublin between the two leaders. Sinn Féin’s national chairman Declan Kearney was also at the meeting.
On the question of Catalan independence, Ms McDonald said it was a live question and there were different views on it.
“It strikes me that the best course of action is for Madrid, for the Catalans, to agree on the rulebook and the pathway forward, and agree how you mediate this question. How is it that a referendum can be held?
“In the final analysis, one way or the other, the Catalan people make the decision about their future … But [it is] also sensible and workable, and something that can maintain civility and social cohesion in a place where there are different views.
“If it is decided democratic will of the people, of course, there would be that recognition. I would expect that not just from a Sinn Féin-led government in Dublin but from any government in Dublin and indeed from the international community. And I would expect and anticipate that Catalonia would be within the European Union,” she said.
