ALLISTER ANSWERS McGUINNESS
09 July 2007
ALLISTER ANSWERS McGUINNESS
Statement by Jim Allister MEP
“I note Martin McGuinness is incensed by my call to delist the Maze buildings, because, of course, such would debunk Sinn Fein’s scheme to venerate their terrorist suicides.
It is the pretence that an “interpretative centre” at the Maze would not glorify terrorism which is ludicrous. Any such venture inevitably entails saluting the memory of those terrorists who made the Maze infamous. Just as the Somme Heritage Centre at Conlig properly salutes and enhances the memory of the brave soldiers who fought at the Somme, so any so-called interpretative centre at the Maze will pander to iconic status for terrorists such as Bobby Sands. It will in truth become a shrine to terrorists and place of pilgrimage for those wishing to wallow in militant republican folklore. Such is utterly repulsive and must not be allowed to happen.
The surest way to guarantee it can never happen is to proceed now to delist the buildings and then swiftly demolish them. The mechanism for doing so exists within the Planning Order and the Department of the Environment should get on with it.”
