DUP MP calls for action against ‘glorification of terrorism’

By Rebecca Black, PA

A DUP MP has called for action against the “glorification of terrorism”, highlighting a Sinn Fein office named after two IRA men.

South Down MP Chris Hazzard’s constituency office is named in memory of Peter McNulty and Paul Magorrian.

Carla Lockhart described the naming as an “affront to democracy”.

Mr McNulty, 47, was killed in a premature bomb explosion during an attack on Castlewellan RUC base in 1972, while Mr Magorrian, 21, was shot dead by the Army in Castlewellan in 1974.

Ms Lockhart said she has raised the matter with the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner as well as the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority, who she said both told her it was a matter for Parliament.

“By doing nothing, we facilitate, indeed financially support, an MP who day and daily glorifies terrorists,” she said.

“I urge the minister to undertake to address this issue in the coming days.”

Ms Lockhart raised the case of South Down man William Heenan, who was murdered at his home in Legananny, outside Castlewellan, quoting his son Sammy who was 12-years-old when his father was killed.

“On that fateful morning on May 3 1985 at 7am, I went out to find my father brutally murdered after I heard his final haunting and dying screams,” the MP said.

“He had been forced to his knees and shot twice in the top of the head at point-blank range by a South Down PIRA gunman.

“The image of his face bloodied and unrecognisable as he lay on the ground that morning will be etched on my mind forever. After which, I had to run to a neighbour’s house half-a-mile away to raise the alarm sobbing and in a state of utter despair.”

Ms Lockhart added: “I have a young son. I want him to grow up in a society that has values, that has respect for the rule of law, that is at peace with one another.

“Those who suffered most, our victims, are not respected, they are insulted. Until this stops, until those who engage in this behaviour cease and recognise the hurt and the wrongs they do and have done, we will never have that real peace we crave.”

Mr Hazzard, like his Sinn Fein colleagues, does not take his seat in the House of Commons.

He has previously defended the naming of his office, saying the building had been called that since before he was born, and that it was “fitting” because the two men had been from the area.