Irish flag 'shouldn't have been' on IRA killer's coffin
Pearse McAuley's funeral took place in Strabane last Thursday
- Published
First Minister Michelle O'Neill has said the Irish tricolour should not have been placed on the coffin of garda killer Pearse McAuley.
The Sinn Féin vice-president said her party played "no part" in his funeral.
McAuley, who was in his late 50s, was found dead in his home in County Tyrone last week.
He was sentenced to 14 years in jail for the manslaughter of Detective Garda Jerry McCabe, who was shot dead by an IRA gang during a post office raid in County Limerick in June 1996.
At McAuley's funeral in Strabane last Thursday, his coffin was draped in an Irish flag with a black beret and gloves placed on top.
At the weekend, Simon Harris used his inaugural speech as Fine Gael leader to criticise the tricolour being draped over "the coffin of a garda killer".
In 2015, McAuley was sentenced to 12 years for stabbing his estranged wife, Pauline Tully, now a Sinn Féin TD, at her home on Christmas Eve in 2014.
The pair had married while McAuley was serving his 14-year sentence for the garda killing.
Michelle O'Neill, Sinn Féin's deputy leader, said the party had no part in the funeral
Speaking during a ministerial visit to Toome, County Antrim, Ms O'Neill said Fine Gael "would rather talk about anything other than their failure in government".
She reiterated her party's call for a general election in the Irish Republic following Leo Varadkar announcing his resignation as Taoiseach and Fine Gael leader.
Ms O'Neill said party colleague and TD Pearse Doherty "is on the record in terms Pearse McAuley's funeral".
"Sinn Féin had no part in that and don't believe that a tricolour should have been placed on his coffin," she added.
Deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly, of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), said the flag being placed on the coffin was "unacceptable".
"Anybody who kills those who have been out serving, trying to protect people, should that be in the Garda or RUC, of course it's absolutely unacceptable," she said.
"I think it besmirches and demeans the flag of a country".