Latimer defends SF speech plan

Dr Latimer was invited to address the conference, being held in Northern Ireland for the first time, by Deputy First Minister Martin Guinness. Rev Latimer also served a tour of duty as an Army chaplain in Helmand Province in Afghanistan and returned to say he had serious doubts about the war there.

The minister’s relationship with Mr McGuinness burgeoned as the restoration of his church, First Derry Presbyterian, got underway culminating in its rededication earlier this year. Mr Guinness attended the re-opening as did the Chief Constable of the PSNI, Sir Matt Baggott.

However, senior figures within the unionist community have questioned Dr Latimer’s reasoning for his recent contacts with dissident republicans during the annual Relief of Derry celebrations and his continued meetings with mainstream republicans in Sinn Fein.

East Londonderry MP, Gregory Campbell suggested that the Presbyterian minister may be being “naïve” with regard to his contacts with republicans of all hues and whilst he said he could not “second guess” what Sinn Fein’s reaction will be, he commented that he would be surprised if the republican party did not use Rev Latimer’s appearance at their conference to make political capital.

“I would be surprised if Sinn Fein did not try to make use of the support given by Presbyterian ministers during the rebellion of 1798 and their support in that era for the Irish republican cause. That is very, very unfortunate,” said Mr Campbell.

In response to Mr Campbell’s comments, Rev Latimer told the Sentinel: “I think Gregory Campbell needs to take a look at himself and leave people within a democratic society to view things in their own way.

“This country suffered from two great evils -ignorance and hatred. We have been separated for so long we have had no opportunity to understand the ‘other side’, which then spilled over into hatred and violence. We need to envision what can be. This is the only way we can do this - to live together, talk together so we can have a better chance of not going back to the past. There has to be wise and brave leadership shown.

“I am not stupid and I will not be used by anybody. “

However, Ulster Unionist Party Alderman Mary Hamilton, seriously wounded in the Claudy bombings of 1972, believed to be the work of the Provisional IRA, told the Sentinel she believed that Dr Latimer’s “congregation, or the unionist people will not be happy about this.”

Mrs Hamilton’s brother-in-law, Ellis Hamilton, was also shot dead by the IRA in December, 1972.

The UUP woman said Mr McGuinness had admitted being in a senior position in the IRA in Londonderry in 1972, adding that if Rev Latimer was “so friendly with Martin Guinness he should speak to him and urge him to tell if he knows who was responsible for Claudy and the killing of my brother-in-law.”

Rev Latimer continued: “Just because we have different aspirations it does not mean we cannot move forward together.

“The biblical imperative for this is ‘love your neighbour as you love yourself’. If we want peace in this society and better hopes for our children and a modicum of prosperity even in this economic climate it can only be achieved by engaging together.

“What I am doing is purely altruistic - for the greater good of both communities. We are all members of the same human family and God is the same maker and He rejects nobody.”

Asked what the main tenet of his speech would be at Friday’s Sinn Fein conference, Rev Latimer said “it is still in progress”.

However, he did say that he regarded the chance to make the address as a “forward looking, rational opportunity - it is timely and it will allow other parties to look at how other communities are perceiving things so we can factor into our policies and plans programmes which are inclusive.”