Ben Lowry: Reports of masked men at Roselawn are a reminder of how the IRA were allowed to take over the facility for Bobby Storey funeral

By Ben Lowry
Published 4th May 2024, 05:12 BST
Updated 4th May 2024, 09:47 BST
Sinn Fein, which had been most sanctimonious about lockdown, at the helm of the IRA Bobby Storey funeral in west Belfast in June 2020, which was a mass defiance of coronavirus restrictions. Yet between 2020 and 2022 those funeral covid rules were adhered to across Northern Ireland by the loved ones of tens of thousands of people who diedSinn Fein, which had been most sanctimonious about lockdown, at the helm of the IRA Bobby Storey funeral in west Belfast in June 2020, which was a mass defiance of coronavirus restrictions. Yet between 2020 and 2022 those funeral covid rules were adhered to across Northern Ireland by the loved ones of tens of thousands of people who died
Sinn Fein, which had been most sanctimonious about lockdown, at the helm of the IRA Bobby Storey funeral in west Belfast in June 2020, which was a mass defiance of coronavirus restrictions. Yet between 2020 and 2022 those funeral covid rules were adhered to across Northern Ireland by the loved ones of tens of thousands of people who died
​There are disturbing reports of men in paramilitary uniform giving a masked send-off at a funeral at Roselawn crematorium.

(Click here to read Ben Lowry’s main article about the importance of journalism) ​

Belfast City Council and the PSNI are investigating this incident, and rightly so.

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But we must not forget what happened at Roselawn in 2020, during lockdown, when it was closed by the council to facilitate the funeral of the leading IRA terrorist Bobby Storey.

And that outrageous event followed an earlier huge show of strength by the IRA in west Belfast when the police helped Sinn Fein and other republican leaders in a mass breach of covid rules in order to facilitate the Storey funeral.

That SF had been the most sanctimonious political party when it came to lockdown made the affair all the more grotesque.

My own parents died two years later and in the case of my mum funeral restrictions had still not been lifted when she died in early 2022. But while tens of thousands of mourners obeyed these restrictions, the IRA refused to do so. That was bad enough. What followed made it worse. A raft of investigations found that, in effect, no-one was to blame. It was as if it just happened. (Click here to read Ben Lowry in 2021 saying that the probes were all like impossible staircases that just brought you back to where you began)

The whole saga was an ominous illustration of the special treatment given by the authorities in NI to the IRA and their apologists.

Ben Lowry is News Letter editor

Related topics:IRABen LowryPSNIBelfast City CouncilBelfast