IRA Commemoration Set for Monument Deemed Eligible for Government Funding
08 June 2012
Statement by North Antrim MLA Jim Allister:
“In February I highlighted the fact that the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development was considering a grant application for £30,000 to refurbish an IRA monument in Crossmaglen.
“At the time local Sinn Fein/IRA MP Conor Murphy claimed that the statue was not an IRA monument but rather “a local point for visitors and tourists”.
“The news that there are plans to hold a memorial to dead IRA terrorist Sean O’Callahan at the monument prove just how bogus Murphy’s claims were.
“O’Callahan was captured with another IRA man on a boat in Lough Ross which was carrying explosive devices. O’Callahan went on to serve six years for possession of explosives. The comments of the commemoration organiser, Jim McAllister, when asked about Murphy’s claim that the monument isn’t connected to the IRA confirm what everyone already knew:
“Of course it is an IRA memorial. Who do you think erected it? The Northern Ireland Tourist Board?”
“The fact that someone who was, as McAllister puts it, “known throughout the IRA in Ireland for developing devices” is to be commemorated at this monument illustrates that it is a totally unfit project to receive public money.
“I have been pressing the powers that be at Stormont to come clean on this issue. Just this week Agriculture Minister Michelle O’Neill dogged a question from myself asking what advice her Department received from the European Commission on the proposal to use Rural Development Funding to refurbish the republican monument in Crossmaglen; and what action has been taken, or will be taken, as a result of that advice. I have followed up with a question challenging her to advise on the content of the correspondence from the European Commission.
“Shortly after I highlighted the possibility of funding going to this IRA monument co-First Minister Peter Robinson claimed that he had “asked officials to investigate & report urgently”. On foot of this I tabled a priority written question on 16th March to OFMdFM asking whether officials were asked to investigate and report urgently on the issue of the Crossmaglen republican monument; by what date; and whether a report has been received and if it will be published. Three months later the First Ministers’ Office has yet to respond”.
