Policing meeting protest 'shows Sinn Fein out of touch'
Sinn Fein demonstrators who forced the abandonment of a policing meeting in a town where Real IRA bombers killed 29 people, are out of touch with public opinion in Northern Ireland, it was claimed today.
Speakers at the first meeting of the policing partnership board in Omagh, Co Tyrone, last night could not be heard above the chants of republican protesters.
Under new arrangements, Belfast, Derry and all district councils have their own monitoring bodies to make policing more accountable.
But Sinn Fein has refused to sign up and its actions last night in Omagh - scene of the August 1998 bomb massacre – provoked outrage.
Denis Bradley, vice chairman of the Northern Ireland Policing Board, said: “I think it is bad manners and bad politics. Sinn Fein is fighting over an issue which is dead.
“The general public has moved past that and the people of Omagh have a right to be heard and to be involved in one of the most important areas of life - policing.”
SDLP councillor Gerry O’Doherty, the Omagh policing chairman, accused republicans of orchestrating the event.
“Anybody who disrupts the meeting and does not allow people to speak is guilty of pure fascism, as far as I am concerned,” he said.
Sinn Fein defended its action. Party member Barney McAleer said: “The policing issue has not been resolved. Nothing has changed.”
