Hot Press interview with Sinn Féin MEP Liadh Ní Riada Sparks Row With DUP

The Hot Press interview with Sinn Féin MEP Liadh Ní Riada has sparked a major row in Northern Ireland.

In what is a forthright and controversial interview, which touches on abortion, euthanasia, drugs, sexism and religion among many other hot topics, Liadh – the daughter of the iconic Irish musician and composer Sean Ó Riada – talked very honestly about the issue of terrorism, and debated, in a way that is hugely interesting, how the word is used, and can be abused.

During the interview, conducted by Hot Press Senior Editor, Jason O’Toole, Liadh stated that she is “uncomfortable with the use of the word terrorism.”

“I don’t think you can have a blanket word like ‘terrorist’ to describe every conflict situation in the world,” she said, "because you’re almost automatically then putting, say, the IRA, for instance, as the one who created this terror, created this conflict.”

The Sinn Féin MEP also said that she disagreed with describing IRA atrocities such as Bloody Friday, Warrington or the Birmingham pub bombings as terrorist attacks. “It was a terrible time of conflict,” she said. “But there is no conflict without a reason.”

She also acknowledged that there is a parallel between the IRA campaign of violence and the campaign being waged by Islamic State – which is a first for a member of the dominant Nationalist party in the North. Fascinatingly, the murder of members of the Miami Showband is also referenced in the discussion.

Now, as reported by the Newsletter, the DUP MEP Diane Dodds has described the comments as “yet another example of Sinn Féin’s continued glorification of IRA crimes” and a “further insult to innocent victims”.

The DUP MEP has called on Liadh Ní Riada and Sinn Féin to apologise for the remarks.

“Sinn Fein should show leadership and withdraw and apologise for these offensive and insulting remarks. How can Sinn Fein speak from one side of their mouths about respect, while continuing to justify the murder of innocent men, women and children from the other?

“People will be rightly outraged by her attempts to gloss over the murder of 9 people on Bloody Friday, 21 people in Birmingham, 7 people in Aldershot and the 2 children in Warrington. The same attacks maimed 375 people. This is just a fraction of around 1800 people the IRA murdered during their terror campaign. Murder was never justified, then or now.”

While talks about restoring an executive in Northern Ireland have been pushed back to after the summer, there is a fear that disagreements of this kind could make the formation of a government in Stormont even more difficult.

To read the full interview, you can buy Hot Press 41-11 Longitude Special issue on racks across Ireland now. You can also Buy 41-11: direct from hotpress.com, or download the iOS app for iPad.