DUP inextricably linked to Sinn Fein
26 September 2008
“Doubtless there will be many DUP members who will have had cause to stop and think about the direction on which their party is set following this week’s BBC documentary. Having been told for months that Republicans had changed, they saw Kelly recall with a chuckle how he had coldly shot a prison officer in the head. Clearly Kelly remained the same unrepentant terrorist he always was.
“Then they heard that Jeffry Donaldson had hurriedly pulled out of a ceremony in which he was to receive a “peace dove” award on behalf of the joint office of First and deputy First Minister alongside none other than that same Gerry Kelly, a withdrawal motivated purely because of pressure and exposure by Traditional Unionist Voice.
“This was a timely reminder that in spite of all the empty rhetoric which flows from the DUP leadership about opposing Republicans the reality remains that they are, to employ a phrase once beloved of that party, “inextricably linked” to Sinn Fein/IRA. Until that link is broken all the macho talk of facing down the Republican agenda will ring hollow in the ears of traditional Unionists.”
