Member's statement: Sinn Féin
Member's statement by Mr Paul Frew on .
- MLA
- Mr Paul Frew
- Party at the time
- Democratic Unionist Party
- Date
- 5 October 2026
- Type
- Member's statement
- Business
- Members' Statements
- Heading
- Sinn Féin
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 5773934
Read the official Assembly record
Text
Here, we have a member of Sinn Féin talking about Rosa Parks, Muhammad Ali, John Hume even and Lord Sumption, of all people, and expecting the House to believe that his party is in the same place, and in the same equation, as those people. We have heard some nonsense this week and continue to hear it today. Accountability is really important. I hear Pat Sheehan across the way quote Lord Sumption, who became a hero of mine somewhat during the lockdown crisis and the disaster that it was. Of course, Sinn Féin went full tilt into depriving the people of Northern Ireland of their freedoms at that time. I stood, along with my party, to try to remove the worst excesses of that. We can stand tall in that regard, but Sinn Féin cannot, when, of course, its members went out in their thousands to a graveyard to have a sham oration for a man, who was not even buried in that graveyard, when other people could not bury their dead or organise a funeral for their loved ones, and people died alone without the comfort of their families around them. That is what Sinn Féin is.
Accountability is important, and, from the disgraceful scenes that they have witnessed this year, a whole raft of people in a new generation now see what Sinn Féin and, for that matter, the SDLP stand for. They stand for intolerance and hatred, and they stand against the rule of law. People of all ages — people my age, older people and younger people — now see that, if Sinn Féin ever were to get unbridled power in Northern Ireland or, indeed, in the Republic, the law would not be there to protect people. I suspect that people from the Republic of Ireland also see that. Sinn Féin and the SDLP have wrapped up blocking a road and depriving 35 gentlemen of walking in silence at 8.00 am as some sort of victory, and people now see exactly what is meant by a "united Ireland" or a "new Ireland". Wrap it up whatever way you want, but the people of Northern Ireland and now the Republic of Ireland see exactly how ugly Sinn Féin really is.
373 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
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