A FERMANAGH South Tyrone MLA has paid tribute to an IRA volunteer who is accused by First Minister Arlene Foster of trying to kill her father.

Sinn Fein MLA Sean Lynch was one of the contributors to the recent ‘Celebration of the life of Vol. Seamus McElwaine’ video, in which Mr. Lynch is seen laying a wreath at the spot where McElwaine was killed in an SAS ambush on the Fermanagh and Monaghan Border at Rosslea on April 26, 1986.

McElwaine is believed by Mrs. Foster to be the man who attempted to kill her father, John Kelly, a part-time police officer who was shot in the head by two IRA gunmen at the family home near Rosslea n 1979, when she was eight years old at the time.

Mr. Lynch is described in the video posted by Monaghan Sinn Fein as a “friend and comrade” to McElwaine.

The Fermanagh South Tyrone MLA was with him at the time, and both were injured, but Mr. Lynch survived his injuries.

Speaking on the video, Mr. Lynch said: “At the time of his death, Seamus was an iconic figure in the struggle for Irish freedom, captured in 1980, and sentenced to life imprisonment. He played a pivotal role in the 1983 escape from Long Kesh.”

Mr. Lynch told the audience: “In the 35 years since Seamus’s death, the Republican movement has went from strength to strength.

“Today we are in touching distance of achieving our goal – Sinn Fein is the largest political party on the island of Ireland; Irish Unity is not a dream any more, but a reality that is a major conversation across the island and beyond.”

Paying tribute to McElwaine, Mr. Lynch said: “I have no doubt that [without] volunteers like Seamus and many others who give their lives, the struggle for Irish freedom would not be where it is today.”

Sinn Fein TD Matt Carthy also paid tribute to McElwaine on the video, who he said “is still held in huge esteem, very fondly remembered by all who knew him, and by a new generation of people from County Monaghan, Fermanagh and by Irish Republicans, of all ages”.

He continued: “Seamus and all of those who fought for Irish freedom continue to inspire us, and now the political circumstances are such that a United Ireland – the delivery of the Republic – is within our grasp.

“Irish Unity is firmly on the political agenda. The Unionist majority in the North is gone; the growth of Sinn Fein ensures that the debate around reunification is live – it’s happening at dinner tables, it’s happening in communities, it’s happening in every forum you could imagine.”

Concluding, Mr. Carthy said: “It’s our time to deliver for all the people of Ireland. It’s now time to deliver the vision of Seamus McElwaine of an Ireland where all of our children are treated equally.

“It’s now time to deliver the real monument to Seamus McElwaine and his comrades. It’s now time to deliver the Republic.”

On February 5, 1980, McElwaine killed off-duty UDR Corporal Aubrey Abercrombie near Florencecourt.

Later that year, on September 23, McElwaine killed off-duty RUC Reserve Constable Ernest Johnston outside his home in Rosslea.

McElwaine was suspected of involvement in at least ten other killings during The Troubles.

DUP Policing Board member Mervyn Storey said: “Seamus McElwaine was described as ‘a dangerous killer’ by the judge at his trial, and he was undoubtedly involved in the campaign of sectarian murder directed against the minority Protestant community along the Fermanagh Border.

“This is the background of someone praised as ‘a saint’ by Martin McGuinness, and still celebrated by Sinn Fein today.

“Within the last few days in Northern Ireland there has been widespread revulsion that terrorists would place the life of a child at risk in their despicable attempts to drag us back to the violence of the past.

“Sinn Fein, however, continue to justify the murder and terrorism those groups seek to emulate, including the deliberate murder of children.”