UUP: The New IRA Statement Is Beneath Contempt

Ulster Unionist Party leader Robin Swann has described a statement issued by the new IRA, in which the organisation admitted responsibility for the murder of Lyra McKee last week, as "beneath contempt" and called for the group to be permanently disbanded.

The 29-year-old journalist died after she was shot during a night of rioting between police and dissident republicans in the Creggan area of L'Derry on Thursday 18 April.

Addressing the fatality this morning, the organisation said: "We have instructed our volunteers to take the utmost care in future when engaging the enemy and put in place measures to help ensure this.

"The IRA offer our full and sincere apologies to the partner, family and friends of Lyra McKee for her death."

The north Antrim MLA has since branded the statement as useless, following a wave of condemnation from the political and wider communities.

"They have been rejected by the very community they claim to be defending and they are shamed in the eyes of the world," he commented.

"Their 'full and sincere apologies' are of no use or comfort to anyone. And to try to imply that Lyra somehow contributed to her own death because she was 'standing beside enemy forces' shows their tenuous grip on reality.

"I doubt these fanatics pledge that they have instructed their untrained teenagers 'to take the utmost care in future when engaging the enemy and put in place measures to help ensure this' will provide much reassurance to anyone.

"This gang needs to be rejected by all. They then need to be rounded up and put behind bars and out of business. There should be no pandering to them or their so-called political representatives. For the sake of society here they must be closed down permanently."



(JG/CM)