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Irish Mirror
Irish Mirror
National
David Kent

Taoiseach blasts Sinn Féin as Michelle O'Neill comments on IRA violence labelled 'sickening'

The Taoiseach has hit out at Sinn Féin - after the party's leader in Northern Ireland, Michelle O'Neill said that she thought there was "no alternative" to IRA violence during the Troubles.

Micheál Martin took to social media to fire a shot at the Opposition party, invoking the name of the late John Hume in doing so.

When asked about IRA violence on the BBC Red Lines podcast, Ms O'Neill replied: "I think at the time there was no alternative.

READ MORE: Ireland's housing crisis: Have Ireland's squatters found a solution to homelessness?

Taoiseach Micheal Martin (Stephen Collins/Collins Photos)

"Now, thankfully, we have an alternative to conflict and that's the Good Friday Agreement."

Ms O'Neill did note that her narrative "is a very different one to someone who's perhaps lost a loved one at the hands of Republicans."

In a tweet on Friday evening, the Taoiseach quoted an article in which the brother of a man murdered by the IRA had called Ms O'Neill's comments "sickening"

Michelle O'Neill (left) and Mary Lou McDonald during a Sinn Fein press conference at Parliament Buildings at Stormont, Belfast, following the historic result at the weekend with Sinn Fein overtaking the DUP to become the first nationalist or republican party to emerge top at Stormont (PA Wire/PA Images)

The Taoiseach tweeted: "Thankfully John Hume and the large majority of nationalists kept working for the alternative, which always existed. SF revisionist history directly stands in the way of reconciliation and building bridges."

DUP MP Ian Paisley Jr said Ms O'Neill's comments were "absolutely atrocious".

"Here we have someone who said that there was no alternative to firing bullets and planting bombs, destroying lives, mayhem and murder, and yet this person aspires to be the first minister of Northern Ireland and has a mandate to be so," he added.

Sinn Fein northern leader Michelle O'Neill meets members of the public as she canvesses ahead of the Northern Ireland Assembly elections at Kennedy shopping centre on May 3, 2022 in Belfast, Northern Ireland (Charles McQuillan/Getty Images)

"I think that it is absolutely shocking that ideologically this is where Michelle O'Neill actually is, that ideologically she is not in a place where she can say: 'Well actually that was wrong, that shouldn't have happened and we should have sought a democratic mandate from day one to get there'.

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