Niall Ó Donnghaile (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

On 5 February 1992, members of a notorious UDA gang entered the Sean Graham bookmakers on the lower Ormeau Road and murdered five people. Several more were injured and untold devastation, pain and loss were brought to this proud, tight-knit and small inner city community. Last Friday, on the 29th anniversary of the massacre, families and survivors gathered, as they do every year, but on this occasion in small, socially distanced numbers, to lay flowers and say a rosary at the spot where the attack took place. Their dignified service was violated when PSNI officers intruded on the peaceful scene. Mark Sykes, a man shot seven times in the bookies attack, and whose 18-year-old brother-in-law, Peter Magee, was murdered, was handcuffed and arrested while holding on to the flowers he had intended to lay in memory of his family, friends and neighbours.

The nationalist and republican people of the North did not sign up to the type of policing witnessed last week. Sinn Féin did not, and does not, support this aggressive and offensive form of policing. These tactics have no place in policing anywhere. Niall Murphy, the solicitor acting for the families, said that the families had been denied access to justice and their right to truth recovery. He called for the immediate publication of the Police Ombudsman's investigation into the massacre, which deals with the collusion between the British intelligence agencies, the RUC and the loyalist killers and the weaponry used in the attack, which was brought in from South Africa by a British agent. As we know, these families and survivors have been not only victims of the massacre in 1992, they have endured continued denials of truth and justice, cover-up and the horrific situation whereby one of the weapons used in the massacre was found on display in Britain's Imperial War Museum when the police had told families and survivors that the weapon had been disposed of.

The appalling conduct of the police and the continued denial of justice for the families is a reminder to the nationalist people that all too often human rights are secondary to the operational needs of the PSNI. This culture of double standard is all the more obvious and telling when set against the recent tactics of the PSNI when dealing with unionist and loyalist paramilitaries. A few weeks ago, the PSNI escorted crowds of loyalist paramilitary thugs through the streets of east Belfast close to where I live, as they stamped their authority on a community already intimidated by drug dealers, seeking to inflict even more intimidation and threat.Families had to flee their homes and seek refuge in a nearby community centre. It is reported that the families are still in that community centre. On that occasion, there was no challenge from the PSNI and no attempt to stop them, there were no arrests, no handcuffs were produced, there was no taking of names, no one was put in the back of police cars and there was no mention of Covid rules. The contrast will not surprise those I represent. The PSNI Chief Constable's statement was inadequate and it did not go far enough and there is a deep crisis of confidence among the nationalist people of the North with regard to how the police are operating. I have no doubt that this will be raised directly with him when he meets with Sinn Féin leaders later today.

I am deeply disappointed the Irish Government, in public at least, has had absolutely nothing to say about last Friday's incident. The Taoiseach needs to urgently and directly involve himself and stay involved in issues of such fundamental importance. He needs to meet those who were attacked last Friday and the Chief Constable of the PSNI and above all else he needs to stand with the Ormeau Road families in calling for the publication of the ombudsman's report into the massacre that took place in the Sean Graham bookies 29 years ago.