Sinn Fein’s views on Hamas makes it harder to sit down with them, says Sammy Wilson
Sinn Fein’s response to the murderous Hamas attack on Israeli civilians makes it hard to sit down with them, Sammy Wilson said.
So declares the headlines in the ‘Belfast News Letter’ article of 16th October, 2023.
Now I find that hard to swallow for the simple reason that the DUP was able to sit down with Sinn Fein in 2007 AFTER they had manifested every form of support for the murder of many of the DUP’s own kith and kin by the the terrorists of the IRA, some of whom were prominent members of Sinn Fein, such as Martin McGuinness.
That terror campaign had gone on for decades, had cost thousands of lives and injuries of men, women and children. Sinn Fein still gathers at the graves of dead IRA murderers to celebrate and honour their ‘heroic’ depravities and never once have offered any form of regret for the campaign, but rather have insisted that they had no option but to engage in terror — an opinion not shared by even the Government parties of the Irish Republic!
This being so, since in 2007 the DUP went back on the most solemn and oft-repeated vows never to join Sinn Fein/IRA in government and boasted of their most happy working relationship with Sinn Fein/IRA, why should Sammy and Co now find it hard to go back to Stormont and sit with them after they have shown support for foreign terrorists — the same terrorists they were supporting in 2007?
I suggest that the time has come that the circumstances surrounding such a return now does not include the ‘cushion’ of the hope of an end to terrorism here that made their decision in 2007 somewhat palatable and acceptable to all too many Unionists. That ‘cushion’ being absent, the raw political greed and ambition and the absence of any political principle is being felt most uncomfortable by many of the DUP’s supporters.
Sammy Wilson is conscious of the fact that they may well cut their own throat, politically speaking, by throwing over yet again many avowed promises to remain out of Stormont until the outrageous ‘de facto’ expulsion of Northern Ireland from the United Kingdom under the terms of the ‘Windsor Agreement’ is ended by the London government.
That has not happened, no matter what ‘Sir’ Donaldson may claim. He and his party know that, but they also know that their ‘withdrawal protest’ is rapidly running out of steam.
All that remains for them is to generate the impression that they have achieved something by their actions and ‘whitewash’ the stark facts of their failure, eat humble pie and crawl back to Stormont.
That is what is hurting Sammy Wilson!