Traditional Unionist Voice chairman Ivor McConnell has called for the resignation of Victims Commissioner Patricia McBride following the emergence of an article she wrote in 2005 about an IRA funeral.

Mr McConnell said:

“Traditional Unionists always opposed the appointment of the sister of an IRA terrorist to the position of Victims’ Commissioner. As soon as she was appointed party leader Jim Allister made it clear that we regarded her as wholly unsuited for the position.

“McBride’s pedigree and provisional sympathies were a matter of public record before she was appointed by the DUP and Sinn Fein First Ministers. Her remarks about how she had sang, “I’ll wear no convicts uniform, nor meekly serve my time” while at an IRA funeral should not, therefore, come as a surprise.”