Loyalist threat linked to murder of election candidate’s father

Sinn Fein North Belfast candidate John Finucane has received a chilling loyalist death threat as the election campaign entered its final week.

The Belfast-based lawyer said he had reported the threat made directly to himself through social media, to the authorities.

He said the messages he received “mock and show open support for the murder of my father, who was killed in front of my family and I in 1989. One further tweet expresses regret that I too was not murdered along with my father.”

Meanwhile, a hardline unionist Assembly member has come under fire for a sectarian internet post in which he said Sinn Fein was not welcome in Rathfriland in County Down because it was a “unionist” town.

Jim Wells published the comment on Monday morning, but has since deleted it. It said: “Many complaints about Sinn Fein canvassing in Rathfriland yesterday. They are not welcome in this Unionist town - particularly on a Sunday.”

Sinn Fein’s Westminster candidate Chris Hazzard said the party “will not be deterred by Jim Wells or anyone else” from canvassing across South Down.

“Our message of equality, rights and Irish unity was well received during our canvas yesterday in Rathfriland,” he said.

According to the 2011 census, 39% of those living in Rathfriland are from a Catholic background and 57% are Protestant.

Meanwhile, UKIP’s former Northern Ireland leader David McNarry has come under fire after he said “it wouldn’t be a bad thing” if Dublin went underwater due to climate change.

It comes as President Donald Trump announced he was pulling out of the 2015 Paris climate change agreement.

Mr McNarry added: “Is it of any consequence to us the interference Dublin puts into us?” When asked if he stood by his remarks he said if “people can’t abide flippancy, I’m sorry for them”.

And a Sinn Fein councillor also caused a controversy after she described Bangor as a “sh*t hole” after encountering a parade by the anti-Catholic Orange Order.

Naomi Bailie wrote in a Facebook post that what should have been a lovely day out in the town turned into a “KultureFest session”. The comment is a reference to efforts by government officials to rebrand sectarian parades as ‘cultural events’.

Ms Bailie wrote: “I will never in my life again go near that s***hole that is Bangor.” She later apologised for the comments.

Urgent Appeal