Sinn Féin must abandon threats

There was something quite buffoonish about Bobby Storey’s boast on a platform in West Belfast with Martin McGuinness that "they haven’t gone away, you know".

It was at once sinister — in the sense that it was an attempt to be sinister — and yet it was also quite amusing in that Bobby Storey sounded like a punch drunk retired boxer who was trying to convince a crowd who once looked up to him that he was fit for another fight.

Whether sinister or amusing, he was restating one of the few quotes that Gerry Adams has given to the political sphere. John Hume used to be criticised by others for his “single transferable speech”, and yet his words have been enshrined in the political process and its institutions.

He will be remembered by the Irish people forever while Gerry Adams will be remembered for the threats he himself issued.

It really is time that Sinn Féin explains the rationale that permeates its thinking, and suggests that the long war won it for Nationalists and that every time they have problems they will resort to threats, that they’ll go back to doing it again.

The threats can only be regarded as an empty promise from Sinn Féin leaders in view of the toll their struggle exerted on the Nationalist people.

John O’Connell

Derry