NEW SINN FEIN leader Mary Lou McDonald has come under fire by other politicians for her use of a slogan long associated with the IRA during her acceptance speech.
The party president closed her speech at the RDS on Saturday with a rallying cry of “up the rebels agus tiocfadh ar la”.
Since then, her remarks have been criticised by politicians on both sides of the border.
According to Fianna Fail TD Darragh O’ Brien: “Comments like that really hark back to a very dark time in the island’s history when many people were murdered by the Provisional IRA.”
Mr O’ Brien added that the use of such language was “ill-judged” considering the ongoing negotiations to restore power-sharing to the North.
Former Ulster Unionist Party leader Mike Nesbitt said that the speech was a “missed opportunity to deliver change”.
He said that the speech “ended with the same, stale rhetoric of ‘up the rebels’ and ‘tiocfadh ar la’.” Mr Nesbitt said: “Unionism will not be slow to identify the contradictions.”
Her use of the phrase “tiocfadh ar la” was the only unscripted part of the address as it did not appear on a version circulated to the media shortly before she spoke.
Last night, Sinn Féin reacted to the criticism of Ms McDonald's remarks by claiming it was "nit-picking" and maintained it was "a tremendous speech".
A statement said that "any fair analysis" showed she spoke of "reaching out to our Unionist neighbours and respecting each other's beliefs and traditions".
It also said Sinn Féin is in the business of delivering change "which seems to be a challenge to other parties".
