Sinn Féin condemns McDowell for remarks

Sinn Féin has condemned Justice Minister Michael McDowell after he likened the party to the Nazis.

Mr McDowell warned the people of Ireland not to do as those in Germany had when they voted for the Nazis in the 1930s.

The minister said people should not vote for those who dealt in politics and violence in June’s European and local elections.

“When it comes to the next election, we shouldn’t do what the people of Germany did in the 1930s when they elected to office people that liked having it both ways – the brown shirts and the Nazis which were a threat to democracy,” he said.

Mr McDowell said the IRA was heavily involved in organised crime in Dublin and the organisation’s Army Council and Sinn Féin were aware of this.

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern sparked controversy last week when he said he had always assumed Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams was a member of the IRA.

And Mr McDowell stepped into the row by questioning Mr Adams’s consistent denials of having played any role in the organisation.

“I don’t believe the man and I don’t know why he makes these statements,” Mr McDowell told the Irish Star on Sunday.

“My family is as committed to the national movement as Gerry Adams’s family ever was and have achieved far more for Ireland and the Irish Republic and given more than the Adams family ever has.”

Sinn Féin described Mr McDowell’s comments as a “desperate and irrational attempt by an ignorant and arrogant individual to keep himself in the headlines.

“Sinn Féin, however, will not be deflected from our political agenda,” a party spokesman said.

“We will continue to represent those who want real change in Irish society, not the self-serving and greedy elite represented by Michael McDowell and the Progressive Democrats.”