Lest we forget: Galling hypocrisy

The determination to transcend the horrors and sectarian divisions of our past, recent and not so recent, is one

of the great unspoken, positive forces at play on this island. The failure of violence and hatred made this new attitude inevitable if not universal.

The vast majority of people on this island want to be good neighbours to each other, to share life’s great gifts rather than sorrows.

Events of recent days can only strengthen this determination. The murder of Lyra McKee was a tragic reminder of a noxious past and how easily beautiful lives can be cut short.

The “paramilitary” clowns marching in Dublin and Cork stirred outrage and memory.

However, nothing challenges the determination to transcend our ugly past like the statements from Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald telling McKee’s murderers that they had no mandate, that they should lay down their weapons.

How does Ms McDonald think that those who established the modern version of the party she now nominally leads achieved such prominence and influence?

What galling hypocrisy.