Seamus Mallon: Sinn Féin 'played John Hume like 3lb trout'
- Published
John Hume (left) was "no fool" but Sinn Féin took advantage of him, Seamus Mallon said
Former deputy first minister Seamus Mallon has said Sinn Féin used his party leader John Hume in order to gain respectability in the United States.
He told BBC Radio Ulster's Talkback that any sacrifice the SDLP made was worth it if it saved a single life.
Mr Mallon said former SDLP leader John Hume was "no fool" but that Sinn Féin leaders played him "like a 3lb trout".
Mr Hume's presence gave republicans a status almost validating what they did in the previous 30 years, he said.
Mr Mallon reiterated previous comments that the British and Irish governments should have made IRA decommissioning a precondition for Sinn Féin's participation in the Northern Ireland Executive.
He blamed the failure to achieve disarmament for the severe political damage suffered by both the SDLP and the Ulster Unionists during the 1990s.
Bullies
The former deputy first minister said he often regrets not having served as leader of the SDLP, but he had to put the need to look after his seriously ill wife, Gertrude, over his political ambitions.
Mr Mallon remains strongly critical of both the Democratic Unionist Party and Sinn Féin's current behaviour, describing them as "the two biggest bullies on each side".
Seamus Mallon made the comments during an interview with William Crawley for BBC Radio Ulster's Talkback programme
"What worries me most is that the two major parties don't seem to, in their hearts, believe in the whole thesis of the Good Friday Agreement," he said.
"Is the present executive showing any benevolence, except to their own supporters and those who vote for them?"
He said he would not include all executive parties in his criticism, because it is a "two-party show".
Stitch-up
Mr Mallon also said that while the other parties were negotiating for two years prior to the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, Sinn Féin had already done their negotiations with the Irish, British and American governments.
"They had their understandings on the release of prisoners, on the factors that they wanted. In other words they had almost written the script," he said.
"Stitch-up is a word that can be used in a very loose way.
"Let's say it was not the furthest thing from the minds of the governments that, in effect, the two greatest bullies would be best suited to govern the people of the north of Ireland."
Mr Mallon said that Sinn Féin had used then SDLP leader John Hume.
Sinn Féin said John Hume and Gerry Adams had "courage and vision" that "brought an end to the conflict"
"He gave them the thing that they were looking for and that was a respectable image in the United States," he said.
"I think he was so immersed in the whole business of getting peace that he didn't, or couldn't, come to grips with the fact that his presence with them gave them, especially in the United States and in Ireland, a status that almost bordered on validating their actions of the past 30 years."
Personified
In a statement, a Sinn Féin spokesperson said: "It is unfortunate that Seamus Mallon talks of his one-time party leader in this fashion, especially given John Hume's current health.
"And in spite of the naysayers, which included Seamus Mallon and much of the Irish establishment, the courage and the vision of John Hume and Gerry Adams and others brought about the Irish peace process and an end to the conflict.
"The Hume/Adams document of 1993 became the catalyst for the achievement of the Good Friday and other agreements, which have underpinned the peace and political processes.
The statement continued: "Mr Mallon also seems to be particularly embittered at the fact that the electorate has consistently rejected the increasingly negative politics of the SDLP, which he once personified.
"We should also remember that Seamus Mallon in his role of deputy first minister, didn't even speak to his co-equal, First Minister David Trimble, and that the political institutions collapsed repeatedly on their watch."