Nesbitt guest speaker at UUP Bessbrook meeting | Latest Newry News, Newry Sport and Newry Business for Newry City

Nesbitt guest speaker at UUP Bessbrook meeting

The Ulster Unionist Party leader, Mike Nesbitt MLA was the guest speaker at the South Armagh branch meeting of the Ulster Unionist Party in Bessbrook Town Hall last Thursday night. Local MLA Danny Kennedy was also in attendance.

Earlier in the evening, Mike Nesbitt and Danny Kennedy had a private meeting with Alan Black, the sole survivor of the Kingsmills massacre.

A packed audience heard the Ulster Unionist leader delivering a hard hitting speech on the subjects of reconciliation and dealing with the past.

He said that if republicans defined the Northern Ireland troubles as a “war” then the IRA perpetrators of the Kingsmills massacre should be in The Hague.

He continued that there was no difference between the murders of police officers Steve Carroll and Ronan Kerr and the previous 300 who died.

In direct contradiction to republican claims that the conditions for conflict no longer exist, he pointed out that they never existed.

He maintained that whilst republicans continue to argue there are circumstances that justify ‘terrorist murder’, others can disagree that those conditions no longer exist and use the argument to continue the murders. Unfortunately this has already happened, according to Nesbitt.

He also pointed out that reconciliation – republican style – was a list of demands and that their calls for a border poll were unhelpful and destabilising. He called on Sinn Fein to call off their “cultural war”.

Following his speech, the Ulster Unionist Leader took part in a question and answer session covering a large number of topics ranging from education to flag protests.

The meeting ended with the singing of the National Anthem.

Short URL: https://newrytimes.com/?p=27285

Posted by on Jan 22 2013. Filed under Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

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