A group of IRA veterans has accused Sinn Féin of censorship and authoritarianism over commemorating a dead republican commander.
In an unprecedented move, a spokesman for the IRA's old 'D' company told the Sunday Tribune the leadership had "completely lost the plot" and were attempting to use the memory of ex-Belfast Brigade OC, Brendan Hughes, for their own "selfish, political purposes".
Paddy Joe Rice said "the word had come down from the leadership" that if it wasn't agreed that Sinn Féin junior Stormont minister, Gerry Kelly, would speak at a commemoration for Hughes in the Felons' club in west Belfast, then "nobody would be allowed to speak".
Several thousand people attended Hughes' funeral in February. A former D company member and once Gerry Adams' best friend, he became an outspoken critic of Sinn Féin leaders, claiming they had betrayed republicanism. Rice said it would have be "entirely inappropriate" for Gerry Kelly to deliver a commemoration speech about Hughes.
"Brendan's daughter Josephine was to be presented with his beret and gloves, enclosed in a glass box, at a function on Friday night," Rice said. "The leadership, through a third party, said Gerry Kelly would give the speech.
"But Gerry Kelly had met Brendan only a few times. He wasn't a close friend, and Brendan opposed the political direction Gerry Kelly and others took. So it was suggested the address be given by Brendan's old 'D' company comrade, Evelyn Gilroy. Her script was shown to Sinn Féin in advance. It contained nothing political, it was just personal recollections.
"But the word came back from the leadership that if Gerry Kelly wasn't speaking, then nobody was speaking. Eventually, they said there could be another speaker but they vetoed Evelyn. They've completely lost the plot. There's no such thing as freedom of speech in this community, everything is censored and controlled."
Based in the Lower Falls, 'D' company carried out hundreds of gun and bomb attacks on the security forces. In concurrence with his wishes, it organised Hughes' funeral. "Gerry Adams wanted to give the oration at the funeral. Before he died, Brendan had said he didn't want that and we upheld his wishes," Rice said.
