THE TUV party member who sparked controversy in Stormont by singing ‘God Save the Queen’ at the end of the annual Remembrance Service has his roots in Fermanagh.

 

TUV press officer Sammy Morrison, originally from Ballinamallard, told the Herald his actions were influenced by the Enniskillen bomb 28 years ago, an event where his aunt Daphne Stephenson was among the injured.

 

Wednesday’s act of remembrance was the first time the annual service was held in the Great Hall at Stormont and the British national anthem was removed from order of service. Mr Morrison, who works with Jim Allister, explained how he had attended the service since Mr Allister’s election as an MLA in 2011 and  was disappointed that both the anthem and a Christian hymn were removed from the running order this year.

 

Standing at the back of the hall Mr Morrison, who now lives in Dromore, County Down, said he was not aware of the presence of all the members of Sinn Fein, including Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness. 

 

“As the service progressed and I heard Mitchel McLaughlin pontificate about the First World War I have to be honest it made my blood boil,” he explained, “because one of my earliest memories is being taken up to Enniskillen on the Monday after the bombings while it was still cordoned off with my sister and my father saying: ‘Don’t ever forget this or the people who did it’. 

 

“The sense of the utter hypocrisy of somebody who is connected to the party that justified that action, proporting to lead an act of remembrance and talking about the First World War I found that nauseating and I felt very uncomfortable there, I felt it was an insult to the many people who have died at the hands of republican terrorists. 

 

“As I’ve said before when I wear my poppy I think primarily of Enniskillen. That’s not a choice I made, that’s a choice the IRA made. They decided that for all of my life every November that I wear my poppy I would think of Enniskillen and I would think of the atrocity there. 

 

“So when it came to the end of the ceremony I made the decision that I was going to sing the national anthem as had been sung on every other year that I had been in attendance at it”

 

Mr Morrison’s aunt and uncle Daphne and Alan Stephenson, from Enniskillen, were caught up in the Enniskillen bomb with Mrs Stephenson trapped under the rubble suffering horrific injuries including a broken pelvis and broken ankle, along with broken fingers, teeth and lacerations to her legs and chin.