‘Injury and offense’ caused by former IRA man promoting business in the city he bombed
Darren Foster was commenting after Breandan Mac Cionnaith (Brendan McKenna) of the Mayfair Business Center appeared in a photo used to promote Council’s Armagh, Banbridge and Craigavon ​​Business Week.
Mr Foster said: “Yesterday, Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon ​​Council announced that Borough businesses could sign up for a series of webinars and podcasts for Enterprise Week 2021 which runs 8-12. November.
“There is no doubt that many events will be worth it, but I am disgusted that the board chose to post a photo including Breandan Mac Cionnaith when promoting the event on his social media account.
“Mr. Mac Cionnaith’s lasting legacy to business and enterprises in the region has been his involvement in the bombing of downtown Portadown.”
Mr Mac Cionnaith served four years in prison in the 1980s for his role in a bombing of the Royal British Legion building in the town of Co Armagh.
He rose to prominence in the mid-1990s as a spokesperson for the Garvaghy Road Residents Coalition (GRRC).
Representatives of the Orange Order in Portadown at the time refused to negotiate a resolution to the Drumcree parade standoff if the former Republican prisoner was involved in the face-to-face talks.
Portadown Lodge leaders during the protests said they refused to speak with “terrorist spokespersons.”
Yesterday, Mr Foster said: “How on earth has a convicted suicide bomber who visited such devastation in one of the region’s major cities ever been considered a suitable face for this campaign?”
“Does the board have any appreciation for the hurt and offense caused by this?”
“I wrote to the CEO of the council today to ask for an explanation.”
In recent years, a number of UK national newspapers have criticized former Labor leader Jeremy Corbyn for sharing a platform with Mr Mac Cionnaith at a Bloody Sunday commemoration in 2000.
A spokesperson for the ABC Council said; “Business Week is offered by a consortium of five partner businesses that work to promote business in the borough.
“Mayfair Business Center is one of the five partners involved in this consortiumâ€.
• A report by the Mediation Network NI, presented to a select committee in Westminster in 2001, described some of the negotiating difficulties that arose from Breandan Mac Cionnaith’s involvement with the Garvaghy Road residents’ group during the Drumcree crisis.
Under the headline “July 1996 – Drumcree Twoâ€, the report reads: “A meeting has been called at the Ulster Carpets factory on Garvaghy Road.
“According to Orange sources, they agreed to send delegates on the understanding that Breandan Mac Cionnaith would not be directly involved. When they discovered his presence at the factory, they left â€.