LABOUR leader Jeremy Corbyn is being criticised over his links with the IRA after campaigning in Warrington, where a terrorist bomb attack killed two young boys in 1993.
Peace campaigner Colin Parry, whose 12-year-old son Tim was killed along with three-year-old Johnathan Ball, says he is “troubled” by the Labour leader’s views on Irish republicanism and has urged him to condemn the IRA.
Mr Corbyn received criticism during the 2015 Labour leadership contest after failing to issue a clear condemnation of the terror group. Last year Jayne Fisher, a former aide of Gerry Adams, the Sinn Fein leader, joined his leadership team.
Mr Parry described Mr Corbyn’s failure to condemn the actions of the IRA as “very strange indeed”.
He added: “I would expect Jeremy Corbyn to announce, quite clearly, that he was utterly opposed to the use of violence by any paramilitary organisation. He has always been quite careful to avoid condemnation when he has been asked for it in the past.”
He continued: “I think for a party leader to be so neutral on it is strange indeed. It’s almost as if he can’t bring himself to say it.
“For someone with aspirations to be Prime Minister he should be brave enough to condemn the IRA for their acts of violence during the troubles.”
Meanwhile Warrington South Conservative Chairman Phil Marshall joined the criticism adding: “I’m absolutely astonished that Jeremy Corbyn was willing to come to Warrington for a photo opportunity with his fans but didn’t find time to apologise for his links to the IRA.
“In the 1980s he routinely attended memorials to IRA terrorists and his closest aide is on record praising the “bravery of the bombs and bullets of the IRA.” Those bombs and bullets were aimed at innocent women and children in Warrington, in Northern Ireland and across Britain. There was absolutely nothing brave about those who were behind them.
“I’m sure that whoever Jeremy Corbyn picks as his candidate in Warrington South will want to condemn those remarks at the earliest opportunity.”
A Labour Spokesperson said: “The fact that the Tories’ in Warrington are spending their time on this desperate attack, rather than the issues that will make a difference to people’s lives, confirms that there is a clear choice this election; between a Labour Party who will stand up for you, and a Tory party who are failing working people.”
Jeremy Corbyn during his visit to Warrington
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For someone, supposed to be a peace campaigner Colin Parry’s inconsistent views will leave some people “troubled”.
Just 3 of Colin Parry’s quotes on Gerry McGuiness – one time deputy leader of the IRA (notably at the time of the Bloody Sunday bombings)
1) Twenty years after the bombing, Mr Parry invited the Sein Fein leader to the Peace Centre in Warrington to deliver a lecture.
At the time, he said: “It is because Martin McGuinness has embraced mainstream, constitutional politics in order to pursue his goal of a united Ireland, that I invited him to deliver the lecture”.
“I am fully aware of his past life as an active member and leader of the IRA, but he has, since the negotiations leading to the Good Friday Peace Agreement, fully committed himself to peaceful and constitutional methods of building the Northern Ireland peace process.”
He said such activities were consistent with the founding principles of the Tim Parry Johnathan Ball Foundation for Peace.
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2) “I would never turn McGuinness or Adams or anyone else away who wanted to talk to us as if you are in a peacemaker organisation you talk to your enemies, even if Martin isn’t an enemy any longer”.
“Martin and I talk fairly regularly and we get along very well.”
“Meeting them seemed slightly odd even to us. But Martin now seems like a very different man to the person who was paraded in the British press as the devil himself.”
“He was very civil and polite and he seems to be wedded to democratic ways and means and has abandoned any notion of continuing the armed struggle”.
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3) “But setting aside forgiveness the simple fact is I found Martin McGuinness an easy and pleasant man to talk to – a man who I believe was sincere in his desire for peace and maintaining the peace process at all costs.
“I think he deserves great credit for his most recent life rather than his earlier life”.
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Did Mr Parry consider the feelings of the families of the victims of the Bloody Sunday massacre when he invited someone involved in their killings on a friendly visit to the Peace Centre? or when he said they “get on very well”.
Perhaps the real problem ‘the aspiring ambassador for Warrington’ Mr Parry has with Jeremy Corbyn is that he wasn’t sent an invitation to meet him.?
I just realised, I once spoke to a Muslim, I would like to apologise for the 9/11 atrocity, I also have a German pal so sorry for the Holocaust.