Don't mention the war
The Speaker took the Ulster Unionist Fred Cobain to task at the start of proceedings today for making "personal or bad-tempered remarks" about Sinn Fein's Gerry Kelly. During a debate on the McGurks bar bombing Mr Cobain had said he found it galling to be lectured by "the representative of an organisation that, for 30 years, practised the bombing of bars and the killing of innocent men, women and children from the Protestant community". He went on to accuse Mr Kelly of promoting the "bombing of bars and the killing of men, women and children".
In 1973 the Sinn Fein junior minister was convicted of causing explosions and conspiracy to cause explosions and received two life sentences plus twenty years. The explosions in question killed one person and injured 200 people.
Of course time has moved on, but is it now a breach of the rules for an MLA to mention the "war"? This ruling echoes the previous exclusion of the DUP's Nelson McCausland, when he made comments about Gerry Adams' IRA past.
If the TUV leader Jim Allister gets elected to Stormont, it will be interesting to see how long he spends in the chamber before running foul of this "don't mention the war" regime.
I'm 
Comments