Warm welcome for unionist at SF ard fheis

AN extraordinary moment unfolded last night when a unionist addressed a Sinn Féin ard fheis for the first time.

Raymond McCord Snr, whose son, Raymond Jnr, was killed by the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) in 1997, took to the stage at the RDS in Dublin to sustained applause.

There was warm laughter as Mr McCord told those assembled he would wear his own father’s orange sash while making his address.

Mr McCord’s principal message was that past collusion between the British security forces and loyalist terrorist groups had to be exposed — an argument Sinn Féin has been making for many years.

Last year a report from the police ombudsman in Northern Ireland found police officers had colluded in covering up Raymond Jnr’s murder and several others.

Mr McCord said that, until his son’s murder, he had always believed collusion was “republican propaganda”. But he had “learned the truth the hard way”, and finished his address last night by saying: “No surrender to collusion.”

Mr McCord once again received sustained applause, and he was followed by a number of other unionists who lost loved ones in the Troubles.

As with any political conference, it was a carefully stage-managed event — but another sign of how far the North has come.

Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness added another first for a Sinn Féin conference by offering cautious praise for the Democratic Unionist Party.

Mr McGuinness said that while governing with the DUP was “not easy”, the journey the party had made should be acknowledged.

“For too many years the people of Ireland were only too aware what the DUP were against. They were against Sinn Féin, they were against power-sharing, the Good Friday Agreement and changes to policing.

“Now the people of Ireland are intrigued by DUP Nua. People are pleased that they are sharing power with Sinn Féin and pleased that they are participating in the all-Ireland institutions.”

However, to much applause, Mr McGuinness stressed that governing with the DUP “has not, and will not, dilute my Irish republicanism one bit”. The DUP had to be “sensible” about the proposed devolution of policing and justice powers to Northern Ireland.

The DUP has insisted in recent weeks that the May deadline for the move will be impossible to meet as the party does not yet have sufficient confidence in Sinn Féin’s commitment to law and order.

Mr McGuinness said the transferal of policing and justice powers was “both logical and necessary”, and was supported by the vast majority of people in the North.

“The DUP need to approach all of this in a sensible way,” he said. “The days of simply breaking deadlines for the sake of it have to end.”