Lord Dodds of Duncairn said,
“Sinn Fein’s 48 hour silence on the attempted murder of Donald Trump is unsurprising as they have yet to condemn the PIRA’s 1996 attempt on my life whilst I was visiting my seriously ill son in the Children’s Hospital.
Whatever the motive behind the Pennsylvanian shooter, it was clearly an attempt to not just murder but to derail democracy.
The beauty of democracy is that we are all equal and solely dependent on our ability to persuade.
By introducing bullets and bombs, the PIRA and the US assassin, sought to circumvent democracy. They both failed.
Democracy always wins. The fact that to this day, so many in Northern Ireland still justify the PIRA’s thwarting of democratic politics is deeply worrying.
Opposing violence is a basic principle. If Sinn Fein believe violence was acceptable in 1996, that means there could come a future point where they will exchange the ballot box for the bullet.
The DUP has consistently opposed all forms of violence. All true democrats should.”