“Not only will they not apologise for the killing of children and civilians throughout the Troubles – they still celebrate those who committed those crimes. That sickens me, quite frankly.”
Tánaiste Leo Varadkar has called on Sinn Féin to apologise for “the killing of children and civilians” during the Troubles by the Irish Republican Army.
In conversation on The Pat Kenny Show on Newstalk on Wednesday, Varadkar was asked about recent opinion polls that indicated a major surge in popularity for Mary Lou McDonald’s rival party.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the Tánaiste was dismissive of this information.
“Opinion polls don’t determine the outcome of general elections that aren’t going happen for two or three years’ time,” he noted.
“I’ve been around long enough in politics to remember when I became leader of the party first and for a long period we were well over 30% in the polls, 35%, 37% on occasion – that did not happen on election day.”
Varadkar went on to talk up the combined support of Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and the Green Party, citing that this is “what’s required to form a Government” while clarifying that Fine Gael intends to contest the next general election as an independent body.
“Ireland has been well served by centrist politics,” he said.
“I know some people talk about Ireland as if it were a failed state but if you look at any objective indicator; we’re among the most successful countries in the world.”
Varadkar later added that “a move to a far left radical Government or a far right radical Government would not be in the interests of our country” and that he will seek to build a coalition at the centre.
On the subject of Sinn Féin, the Tánaiste labelled himself an “internationalist” as opposed to a nationalist and said that he believes in bringing down borders and is committed to the European Union “unlike Sinn Féin”, who Varadkar went on to describe as “an obstacle to Irish unity”.
Varadkar was then faced with the subject of a controversial viral video featuring Gerry Adams singing the phrase ‘Tiocfaidh Ár Lá La La La’, for which the company responsible offered an apology this week.
Asked for his view on the video, the Tánaiste said:
“That’s up to him. Gerry Adams apologising about a video that went viral is not the apology that I’d like to hear from Sinn Féin.
“The apology I’d like to hear from Sinn Féin is them accepting that the killing of children and civilians by the IRA in our lifetime was wrong. That’s the apology we need to hear. Even ETA have done that in the Basque country.
“We’ve yet to hear that from any Sinn Féin representative.
“Not only will they not say that that was wrong, not only will they not apologise for the killing of children and civilians throughout the Troubles – they still celebrate those who committed those crimes and that sickens me, quite frankly.
“That’s why we can never form a Government with them,” he concluded.
Featured Images via Sasko Lazarov and Sam Boal / RollingNews.ie
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