By Greg O’Loughlin,
Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald today called for political leadership in response to the attacks and acts of intimidation in Belfast, and said: “Nobody has the right to spread fear, to intimidate, to terrify innocent families.”
Speaking in the Dáil during Leaders’ Questions, she expressed her solidarity with the victim of the barbaric knife attack on man in Belfast on Monday night, hailing the bravery of those who came to his aid, and said the suspect must pay a heavy price for this brutal crime.
Ms McDonald said: “Were it not for the selfless bravery of members of the community, including Maitiu Mág Tighearnán – putting himself at risk, jumping from his car and using his son’s hurl to stop the brutal assault – the victim would surely have lost his life.”
She condemned outright the groups of masked men who burned families out of their homes last night and urged Taoiseach Micheál Martin to join her in “offering support to the victim of Monday night’s vicious assault and to take this opportunity to condemn unequivocally the appalling violence carried out against innocent families last night.”
She said: “Many of those leading this violence are the same people who will burn tricolours on top of bonfires on the twelfth of July.
“What occurred last night echoes back to the pogroms on Bombay Street in 1969 when families and children were burnt out of their homes by Loyalist mobs.
“Why? Because they were Catholic. Why? Because they were Irish.
“Many were forced to leave, fleeing for their lives to cross the border into Dundalk and beyond – refugees in their own country.
“This was inflicted on the Irish nationalist community time and again. And when we said never again.
“When we said we would never allow anyone to be treated this way again – we meant it and we meant anyone.
“Not Irish. Not any community. Nobody has the right to spread fear, to intimidate, to terrify innocent families.”
Ms McDonald’s Dáil contribution in full:
Did You Know?
THE Facts:
Print – 13,000 p/mo, 460 locations and online;
eBulletin – 15,000+ opted-in subscribers, every 2nd Wednesday.
Web and SM – More than 50,000 followers averaging
88,000 engagements p/mo (www.iirish.us)
Subscribers – in 28 U.S. states and in Ireland
20 advertisers have been with us for 15 years or more
23 additional advertisers have been with us for 10 years or more
25 additional advertisers have been with us for 5 years or more
Every story in print is also on www.iIrish.us.
Every story on iIrish.us is not in print.
Every story in the eBulletins, are not in print.
Every story on social media, are not in print.
The Year that Was:
2026:
