DUP and SDLP politicians who lost fathers during pandemic speak out after massive funeral for IRA man Bobby Storey

A recently-bereaved DUP MLA has said the sight of so many people at Bobby Storey’s funeral in west Belfast on Tuesday only worsens the pain felt by people who – like him – held small funerals for their relatives.

Edwin Poots, current agriculture minister and formerly the Province’s health minister, buried his father during the coronavirus crisis.

Charlie Poots had been one of the founding members of the DUP and was a councillor in Lisburn for two-and-a-half decades.

He had also narrowly avoided assassination by the INLA.

Arlene Foster had said at the time of his death in late April: “The current circumstances make it difficult for us all to express our thoughts directly with those who have lost someone.”

It is understood only family were present at the funeral service.

Speaking yesterday in the wake of the scenes in west Belfast – which involved Deputy First Minister Michelle O’Neill accompanying the coffin amid vast crowds of onlookers and giving graveside address to countless mourners – Mr Poots told the News Letter: “It just compounds the immense hurt that many people felt at the time when they weren’t able to have a funeral they’d have wished to have had for their loved one.

“Those people who sought to stay close to the guidelines that were put out there are deeply offended at others who just drove a coach and horses through them.”

Asked whether Ms O’Neill should step down as a result of her participation, Mr Poots said: “I think that her actions are entirely inappropriate and she needs to reflect on that.

“She’s been standing getting selfies with people plainly not social distancing.

“So she’s asking the public to do something which she’s not doing herself and that’s not a good place for a leader to be in.”

Pressed again about whether she should quit, he said: “I’ll raise that issue directly with her.”

He is due to see her as part of an Executive meeting today, he said.

Also contrasting the pomp of Bobby Storey’s funeral to the pared-down funeral of their own relative was John Dallat’s daughter, Helena.

She is an SDLP councillor on Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council, and lost her father – an SDLP MLA for East Londonderry since 1998 – in early May this year.

Mrs Dallat-O’Driscoll told the News Letter yesterday: “The funeral he had was incredibly simple.

“As a family, we did what we thought we had to do.

“He had no wake – we didn’t even get to bring his remains home.

“We had a very small private funeral, only immediate family. We did not carry the coffin. His MLA colleagues weren’t able to travel to it.

“All of that goes completely against our culture.

“It did break our hearts – it wasn’t the funeral we wanted to give him. But we felt we had to make those sacrifices.”

When it comes to the Storey gathering, she said Ms O’Neill should “reflect” on her “authority to give advice” to the public about Covid-19 restrictions.

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