Church leader issues election language warning

All sides in Northern Ireland were today urged by Church of Ireland Archbishop Dr Robin Eames to watch their language in the general election campaign.

Words could kill, and there was a need for the utmost care and responsibility, he said.

Dr Eames said language was a sensitive and important element of the election process but warned: ‘‘Intemperate language, sectarian feelings expressed through word or attitude which can inflame local tensions, must be avoided.’’

The Archbishop, who was opening the Church of Ireland general synod in Dublin, also appealed for a settlement in the Orange Order stand-off at Drumcree, which he said contained the ingredients to push Northern Ireland back into violence and suffering.

Everyone involved had to focus on mediation.

Drumcree and Garvaghy Road, he said, comprised a tragic situation which continued to haunt the church.

It was a cameo of the darkest side of life here in which people were prisoners of the past and hostages of the present.

Dr Eames said: ‘‘The Church of Ireland does not, cannot and will not condone the scenes of sectarian hatred we have seen in previous years, so often orchestrated by those who have their own agenda, and little or no interest in the concerns of the Orange Order or residents’ coalition.’’

He added: ‘‘Independent legal advice has examined all that the Church of Ireland has said and done in this tragic situation.

‘‘It has confirmed that as the laws of the Church of Ireland stand at present, we have utilised every available avenue to express our condemnation and state our position.’’