McGuinness: Resist celebrating death of Thatcher
Sinn Féin's Martin McGuinness has said people should not be celebrating the death of the former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.
She became a hate figure for many in Ireland when she allowed a number of republicans to die on hunger strike while in prison in the 80s.
However, the North's Deputy First Minister has tweeted:
Resist celebrating the death of Margaret Thatcher,she was NOT a Peacemaker but it is a mistake to allow her death to poison our minds.
— Martin McGuinness (@M_McGuinness_SF) April 9, 2013
Unionists like DUP First Minister Peter Robinson have praised her commitment to the Union but Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams accused her of pursuing “draconian, militaristic” policies which prolonged the conflict.
Her uncompromising stance over the hunger strikes in the Maze/Long Kesh prison in 1981 defined her as a republican hate figure.
She refused to back down on her policy of criminalisation of IRA inmates. A total of 10 prisoners starved themselves to death in an attempt to secure prisoner of war-type privileges.
Baroness Thatcher also took a steadfast approach against any wider settlement with the IRA as violence regularly afflicted the North.
An IRA bomb in 1984 exploded at the Conservative Party conference in Brighton, killing four delegates and seriously injuring many others in an attempt to assassinate the premier.
