Member's statement: Sinn Féin: Suitability for Office

Member's statement by Mr Timothy Gaston on 8 September 2026.

MLA

Mr Timothy Gaston

Party at the time

Traditional Unionist Voice

Date

8 September 2026

Type

Member's statement

Business

Members' Statements

Heading

Sinn Féin: Suitability for Office

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5673782

Read the official Assembly record

Text

On Sunday week ago, Michelle O'Neill, the First Minister of "no alternative", spoke at the terror fest that is the national hunger strike commemoration, which glorifies the 10 terrorists who chose to kill themselves by starvation. In choosing death, those terrorists made a choice that they denied to innocent people. Let us first consider Thomas McElwee. That IRA terrorist was convicted and sentenced to years in prison for possession of explosives and the manslaughter of Yvonne Dunlop, a mum who died in a firebomb attack in my home town of Ballymena 50 years ago. Also included in the commemoration is Francis Hughes, another terrorist, convicted of the murder of Lance Corporal David Jones, a British army soldier, and the wounding and attempted murder of another soldier. O'Neill preaches about being First Minister for all and, indeed, champions the ending violence against women and girls strategy, yet she maintains that there was no alternative to the murder of Yvonne Dunlop or Jean McConville, a 37-year-old widowed mother of 10, who was abducted from her home in the Divis Flats in December 1972. Every time that O'Neill pontificates about ending violence against women and girls, the words of Geoffrey, Yvonne's son, should ring out around the Chamber, "What about our mummy's life?" There was always an alternative to murder. In Sinn Féin's attending that glorification, we once again see why it is not fit for government, never mind to hold the position of First Minister of a country that it wants to destroy. No one should be fooled by Michelle O'Neill or, for that matter, Sinn Féin. We learned from Question Time yesterday that the inability to secure a date to attend the Executive Office Committee is down to the First Minister, who has not been at that Committee since February. Ms O'Neill does not like scrutiny and is on the run from facing questions from a lowly Back-Bencher such as me. That shows the contempt that the First Minister has for the Committee and the lengths to which she will go to avoid being questioned on her continued glorification of victim-makers. While other unionists are prepared to swallow their principles and share power with the IRA's proxy, Sinn Féin, I will continue to call out the First Minister and ensure that there is one voice in the Chamber that unashamedly says that Sinn Féin is not fit to hold office.

399 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

Flagged Legacy of the Troubles, victims and paramilitarism

Jev’s structured answers

Assessed 21 October 2026 at 16:17 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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