Following media reports that Sinn Fein`s Declan Kearney wrote to Saoradh in 2020 seeking political co-operation, Ulster Unionist Party leader, Doug Beattie MC, said:

“Reports that Sinn Fein were seeking to build an alliance with dissident republicans are alarming. Saoradh are considered to be the political arm of the New IRA which continues to be involved in murder and violence. Declan Kearney may try to hide behind the veneer of the peace process, but by seeking to jump into bed with Saoradh whilst the New IRA continue to murder and justify the use of terrorist violence is deplorable.

“The New IRA are the group which murdered Lyra McKee on the streets of Londonderry in 2019. The fact that Sinn Fein sought to form a political coalition with Saoradh just a year after Lyra McKee was murdered is reprehensible. I would ask Declan Kearney to explain how he or anybody else in Sinn Fein can justify this while the New IRA remain in existence and Saoradh continues to justify their actions?

“Terrorist violence was never justifiable whether it was the Provisional IRA or now the New IRA.”