Sinn Féin TD apologises for Rosa Parks reference in Covid cert debate

Sinn Féin spokesperson on Higher Education, Rose Conway-Walsh TD made the comparison yesterday afternoon in the Dáil. Picture:Gareth Chaney/Collins

A Sinn Féin TD has apologised for comments made in the Dáil yesterday referencing Rosa Parks, the US Civil Rights icon in a debate over proposed indoor dining regulations. 

Rose Conway-Walsh was criticising the Government's plans to introduce domestic Covid-19 certificates to reopen indoor dining when she made the reference. 

Debating the proposed government regulations for the reopening of the sector, the Mayo TD said: "It's becoming more and more obvious as the evening goes on that this legislation is completely unworkable and unjust. 

"And I don't care how many Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael or Green TDs stand up and try and rationalise it. And I take what one of the previous government speakers said: 'While it's not too much trouble for me to show my pass at the door and I'll go in and get my seat'. 

"And I really thought of Rosa Parks. And I thought of the segregation that is being done here. And to say that people are being treated differently but they are not being discriminated against is just plain wrong." 

In a tweet published this afternoon, Ms Conway-Walsh said she regrets the reference to Rosa Parks and said she was attempting "to make a wider point about segregating people."

"The two situations are in no way comparable and would not want to ever imply that they are. I apologise," she said.

Her apology follows widespread condemnation of independent Tipperary TD Mattie McGrath's comments that Covid certificates were comparable to discriminatory practises operated in Nazi Germany. 

Speaking to media on Tuesday, Mr McGrath said: "Is that where we've come to now, back to 1933 in Germany, we'll be all tagged in yellow with the mark of the beast on us, is that where we're going? I'm surprised at ye."

The official Auschwitz Museum took to social media to criticise Mr McGrath's comments and said his comments were "sad symptom of moral and intellectual decline". 

The independent TD was also directed to the museum's free seven-lesson course on the history of the Holocaust. 

@mattiemcgrathtd ‘Holocaust–the destruction of European Jews’
A seven-chapter online course about the history od the #Holocaust.
All parts below.https://t.co/Law3fQRRMS

— Auschwitz Memorial (@AuschwitzMuseum) July 13, 2021

Rosa Parks was a pivotal figure in the Montgomery Bus Boycott and a leading figure in the US Civil Rights movement after her decision in December 1955 to oppose bus segregation when she disobeyed an instruction to vacate her seat for a white passenger. 

Her actions inspired a bus boycott among Montgomery's black community for over a year and her arrest for civil disobedience in opposition to Alabama segregation laws was instrumental in court challenges to racial segregation in the US. 

An international symbol of resistance to racial segregation, upon her death in 2005, she was the first woman to lie in honour at the Capitol Rotunda in Washington DC.