Opinion

Opinion: No place for paramilitary displays

A paramilitary display in west Belfast on Monday evening in advance of the funeral of former INLA member Martin McElkerney
A paramilitary display in west Belfast on Monday evening in advance of the funeral of former INLA member Martin McElkerney A paramilitary display in west Belfast on Monday evening in advance of the funeral of former INLA member Martin McElkerney

There are many appropriate ways of commemorating the death of a loved one but the appearance of masked men firing volleys of shots into the air is not among them.

It will also be noted that the disturbing paramilitary display in west Belfast on Monday evening in advance of the funeral of former INLA member Martin McElkerney was the second of its kind in the space of a month.

Brandishing illegal weaponry in a densely populated area is a practice which brings us back to the darkest days of the Troubles and deserves to be discontinued once and for all.