Democratic Unionist Party MEP Jim Allister has launched a blistering attack upon Sinn Fein/IRA MEP’s Barbara de Brun and Mary Lou McDonald after it emerged that they have signed up to become members of the European United Left/Nordic Green Left (GUE) Group within the parliament. This group is comprised principally of the communist parties of Europe and includes the Czech and former East German Communist parties.

Speaking today, Jim Allister said, “I wish I could say I am surprised by the decision of the Sinn Fein/IRA MEP’s to sign up to a group which includes the Communist parties, who oppressed the people of Eastern Europe for decades, but I am not. Despite the high-brow talk of “equality” and “civil rights”, the Sinn Fein/IRA mask has once again slipped, revealing the fundamentally oppressive and authoritarian tendencies that exist within modern Irish Republicanism.

I am sure that American observers of the political process in Northern Ireland will find it very interesting indeed that Sinn Fein/IRA, should be lining up in solidarity with the former political rulers of the old GDR and Czechoslovakia. These parties stood as enemies to liberal-democracy and western freedom for more than forty years. Somehow I don’t see this being mentioned at the New York fundraisers!

Following on the back of Bairbre de Brun’s disgusting antics, marching behind the coffin of convicted IRA murderer Joe Cahill, this action serves to demonstrate the true nature of the Sinn Fein/IRA beast. By lining up with the former communist parties who oppressed millions of people in the Soviet-era, they have shown their scant and fleeting regard for principals of democracy. In the light of this decision, I hope and trust that international opinion formers, particularly in the US Administration, will revise their attitude towards Sinn Fein/IRA”.