DUP had its own links with paramilitaries

THE DUP have been highly critical of the possible Assembly link between the UUP and David Irvine of the PUP because of his association with loyalist paramilitaries.

In 1981, Dr Ian Paisley was responsible for assembling 500 men in military formation and paramilitary dress, each holding aloft what was claimed to be a valid gun licence.

This was clearly aimed at showing that he had at his command an organised group of armed men should the need for military action arise.

In 1986, the DUP’s Peter Robinson led an unarmed cross-Border incursion into the village of Clontibret in Co Monaghan. The clear objective was to demonstrate to Northern nationalists and the people of the Republic just how vulnerable were their own communities, particularly in border areas, should large-scale sectarian fighting break out.

Yet Paisley and the DUP have always denied any association with the various loyalist paramilitary organisations which have been responsible for some of the most savage murders in Northern Ireland over 30 years.

WB Yeats wondered if he carried any responsibility for the 1916 Rising when he wrote: “Did that play of mine send out certain men the English shot”?

Have Dr Paisley & Co ever harboured any similar concerns about just how clean their own hands may be when it comes to atrocities committed by loyalist paramilitaries?

Peter Molloy

9 Haddington Park

Glenageary

Co Dublin