Mrs Lockhart said:
“Thomas McElwee was a terrorist. His legacy is one of death, of destruction, of cowardice. Thomas McElwee left a nine-year-old boy to live with the lifelong trauma of watching his mother be burnt alive. He is no hero. He is evil personified.
It is utterly shameful that Sinn Fein’s Mid-Ulster MP Francie Molloy publicly celebrates this individual. His actions fly in the face of the words of SF Vice President Michelle O’Neill, who earlier this week stated, “Hate and sectarianism have no place in our society”. Yet McElwee was a man whose actions personify hate and sectarianism. It is incumbent upon Michelle O’Neill to condemn the horrific hate filled action of Thomas McElwee.
Sinn Fein’s hypocrisy is well known. They say hate and sectarianism is wrong yet seem to believe that some hate and sectarianism is fine, so long as it is a manifestation of Irish Republicanism.
As society moves forward, we need Sinn Fein to recognise that there is no place for the glorification of terrorists, and that such actions are found reprehensible by all right-thinking people.
I urge Michelle O’Neill to show leadership, and to show she means what she says, and to request Francie Molloy delete his tweet and issue an apology. To fail to do so will show that Sinn Fein remain wedded to revelling in the evil of the IRA.”