Alan Black calls the West Tyrone MP's punishment "a holiday".
The sole survivor of the Kingsmill massacre has hit out at Sinn Féin after its suspension of West Tyrone MP Barry McElduff.
Alan Black, who was shot 18 times has publicly denounced Sinn Féin's response saying:
"A three month suspension on full pay, is that a punishment? That's a holiday."
McElduff was handed
a three month suspension after he posted to Twitter a video of him carrying a loaf of Kingsmill bread on his head, the timing of which coincided with the anniversary of the 1976 Kingsmill Massacre.
The MP removed the video on 6 January, before apologising for causing offence. He later offered to meet with the families of those massacred "if they were willing", while insisting that he "had not realised or imagined for a second any possible link between product brand name and Kingsmill Anniversary."
https://twitter.com/BarryMcElduff/status/949599783907360768
https://twitter.com/BarryMcElduff/status/949600107737075713
https://twitter.com/BarryMcElduff/status/949696000901427204
"I watched all my friends being murdered, my 19-year-old apprentice crying for his mother, and then to watch on Friday a man standing and mocking their deaths, if he was a man of principle he would walk", Black went on to tell UTV. "If he didn't know the fifth of January was the Kingsmill massacre, it's beyond me."
https://twitter.com/eastantrimmp/status/950399832635691008?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bbc.com%2Fnews%2Fuk-northern-ireland-42610735
Sinn Féin's Stormont leader, Michelle O'Neill has said that she does not believe McElduff's actions were "calculated or deliberately intended to be malicious."
"I made it clear to Barry that his tweet was ill-judged, indefensible and caused hurt and pain to the victims of Kingsmills," she said. "It falls far short of the standard expected of Sinn Féin representatives and our members."
The Kingsmill massacre took place on 5 January 1976, when IRA gunmen stopped a minibus in rural south Armagh and murdered ten Protestant workmen. Alan Black was the only survivor, despite being shot 18 times.
