'Will this society ever get a moral compass?' Pressure increases on John Finucane over upcoming 'South Armagh Volunteers Commemoration'

Signs have appeared listing him as the main speaker at the 'South Armagh Volunteers Commemoration' at 4pm on June 11 (Sunday), at Mullaghbawn Community Centre, in the tiny village of that name a few miles from the Louth border.

The signs, which bear Sinn Fein's logo, also say there will be "music, refreshments, and kids entertainment at Ti Chulainn", a centre just to the north-east of the village which has a giant PIRA memorial in its grounds.

The News Letter tried to find out from Mr Finucane and Sinn Fein exactly what this June 4 event will be commemorating; for example, whether it is members of the Provisional IRA, pre-Troubles republicans, or both.

No response had been received at time of writing.

Supposing that the commemoration will indeed honour Provo members, rival politicians have been fiercely critical of Mr Finucane’s involvement, as has Troubles victims’ spokesman Kenny Donaldson of the South East Fermanagh Foundation (SEFF).

Mr Donaldson said: “This is particularly poor form from a political representative who is himself an innocent victim/survivor of terrorism.

"If an event was held commemorating those gunmen who carried out the assassination of John Finucane's father, then he would be up in arms, and rightly so.

"When in this society are people going to wake up and observe some form of a moral compass?

"The glorifying of terrorism or other Troubles related-violence, the cherry-picking of certain acts of violence and the explaining away or excusing of other violence is nauseating.”

He added that SEFF “challenges John Finucane to step away from this event”, adding that it “is being branded as a family event, pitched as something historical; the reality is that these issues are the present for so many families whose loved ones were cruelly stolen away from them”.

Former DUP first minister Arlene Foster said: “For all those fawning over Sinn Fein, here is one of their MPs glorifying terrorists and making it sound like a fun day out for all the family.”

DUP MLA Emma Little-Pengelly added: “Baffling that a so-called mainstream party keeps getting away with this. The same ‘volunteers’ and IRA that remains proscribed as a terrorist organisation.

"The very same IRA group responsible for appalling sectarian murder and atrocities, including Kingsmill and Tullyvallen.”

Loyalist activist Jamie Bryson said: “Imagine, for just one moment, if Jeffrey Donaldson or Jim Allister was billed as the guest speaker at an event glorifying the UDA or UVF.

"Just pause and consider the mainstream and social media meltdown. However, standards are different when it comes to Sinn Fein of course."

And TUV Cusher councillor Keith Ratcliffe said: “There is something particularly perverse about this event being advertised as including ‘kids entertainment’.

"Clearly Sinn Fein envisages a future where the most obscene acts are not repudiated but celebrated and those responsible held up as heroes to the next generation.

"So much for the bright new future which it is claimed awaits us all in an all-Ireland!”

Ti Chulainn, where the children’s entertainment is to be held, is touted on official government tourism website Discover Northern Ireland as a "cultural, events and accommodation centre" which is "suitable for all family and business occasions".

However, it is home to a large plaza with five flagpoles and a giant plaque honouring 24 people whom it describes as "the South Armagh Brigade Roll of Honour Oglaigh na hEireann".

These 24 are dead PIRA members. spanning from 1971 up to the late-2000s, with the last name on it being Pat Lynch (a key member of both South Armagh PIRA and Sinn Fein who died of natural causes in 2008).

Mr Finucane's role in the upcoming commemoration emerged into the public eye after signs advertising the event went up in Co Armagh.

One advertisement for the June 4 event was placed at Malachy Conlon Park in Cullaville village, and another shows the same advert fixed beneath a PIRA memorial in Crossmaglen.

In 2018, John Finucane had given an address at a memorial garden in Ardoyne, north Belfast, which contained a memorial plaque headed 'Oglaigh na hEireann... 1916 - 2016'.

The plaque listed a string of dead PIRA members, dating from "oglaigh" John Copeland in 1971 (who is wrongly classed in Lost Lives and CAIN as a civilian) to Thomas Begley in 1993.

Begley – known as Bootsy – was one of the two-man team who accidentally blew themselves up while bombing a fishmonger's shop on the Shankill Road. He and nine others died.

A copy of John Finucane's address at that memorial garden was carried on the Sinn Fein website.

He had started his speech by saying "it is a great honour for me to welcome you here today to Ardoyne as we gather to remember our patriot dead, the generations that gave their all, to build an Irish Republic," and ended with a declaration of: "Up the rebels!"

The contents of Mr Finucane's speech then disappeared from the Sinn Fein website sometime in 2021 or 2022 (though archived versions of it remain on the net).

Last year Marc Collins, a DUP councillor in his 20s from the Carrickfergus area, was booted off his council for eight months over tweets he had made three years earlier about John Finucane and his family.

Councillor Collins had re-tweeted a picture of a banner on the Shankill Road which had stated – correctly – that three of John Finucane's uncles, Dermot, Seamus and John Senior, were involved with the PIRA, and also carried the widely-known claim from PIRA mole Sean O'Callaghan that his father Pat Finucane was an PIRA member.

https://www.newsletter.co.uk/news/crime/ex-labour-mp-kate-hoey-on-pat-finucane-party-must-not-side-with-those-who-want-to-rewrite-troubles-history-3016962

The banner then went on to make accusations about John Finucane himself and councillor Collins claimed that John Finucane "supports and promotes the IRA" and "isn’t innocent by any means".

This is all recounted in a report from the Local Government Commissioner for Standards, which suspended councillor Collins over the Twitter messages.

Following councillor Collins’ suspension, earlier this year Mr Finucane also launched a lawsuit against him, claiming defamation.

MORE FROM THIS REPORTER:

• Ian Paisley: We are nowhere near the risk of a border poll - but if one ever happened there should be a turnout quota and supermajority

• Linking PIRA campaign with the Irish people shows Mary Lou McDonald inhabits a 'parallel dimension' - UUP man

• The last Last Post: Remembering the final soldier killed by the PIRA a quarter-century on – 23-year-old Lance Bombardier Stephen Restorick