SF ‘not ashamed’ of tribute to escapees

SINN FÉIN has stood over its controversial 20th anniversary celebration of the Maze breakout despite strong condemnation of the event from political parties North and South.

Leading Sinn Féin politicians and a number of escapees gathered in a Letterkenny hotel last night to commemorate the September 1983 escape. Some 38 prisoners escaped in a breakout that also resulted in the death of a prison officer and several others sustaining injuries.

Last night Sinn Féin’s North Belfast MLA Gerry Kelly, who was one of the escapees in 1983, said he regretted the death of the prison officer but nonetheless said it would be a “celebratory occasion” of an event that lifted republican morale “sky high”.

However, a Labour Party spokesman said the event demonstrated Sinn Féin’s selective treatment of the past.

“It reflects a continuing obsession with the past and a total lack of appreciation of the pain that the republican movement has inflicted on so many people in the past 30 years,” he said.

“One thing that’s missing is any sign that they acknowledge they did things that hurt and caused grief to others.”

Jeffrey Donaldson, of the Ulster Unionist Party, said he was appalled at the “insensitivity” of the event.

Among the Maze escapees who attended were Brendan ‘Bik’ McFarlane, Bobby Storey and Jim Clarke. Two of the party’s MPs, Pat Doherty and Michelle Gildernew, also attended.

Some 19 of the 38 who escaped were captured almost immediately. Another nine were later killed during IRA operations. Three of the escapees, Kevin Barry Artt, Terry Kirby and Paul Doherty, were arrested in the US during the 1990s and took legal challenges against their extradition.

A Sinn Féin spokesman last night strongly defended the event. “We are not embarrassed about our past or our history. It is republicans remembering our own. We are not ashamed of it in any shape or form,” he said.