MINISTER HUMPHREYS WELCOMES FORMER FINE GAEL LEADER’S APOLOGY FOR BORDER COMMENTS

Cavan/Monaghan Fine Gael TD and Minister for Justice Heather Humphreys has welcomed the apology issued by her former party leader Alan Dukes for commenting during a television documentary that Border people were more easily driven to violence. Mr Dukes attracted extreme criticism for the remarks, made during a contribution to the three-part documentary on businessman Seán Quinn screened by RTÉ last week. In one of the Quinn Country episodes, Mr Dukes, speaking in the context of incidents of violence and intimidation which followed upon the takeover of some of Seán Quinn’s companies, said.

“Border people have it in their blood. They are living in communities that have a long history of violence of different kinds. They are more easily turned to it than anybody else to it. “And I’m not saying they’re different animals to the rest of us, but whether they have Provo links or B Special links or whatever, it’s something that is nearer to the way they think than it would be to somebody in south Tipperary or something like that.” Minister Humphreys had called for an apology for the remarks, stating: “Alan Dukes’ comments were wrong and he should apologise. It was the people in the Border area and our communities who suffered most as a result of the violence carried out by criminals and terrorists.

Our communities stood against this violence for decades.” Speaking on the national media subsequent to the documentary broadcast, Mr Dukes apologised and said he wanted to unreservedly withdraw his remarks. “Those remarks were entirely unjustified. They offended a great many people and I apologise unreservedly,” the former Fine Gael leader and Government Minister said on the Today FM programme The Last Word with Matt Cooper.

“I was thinking about the wave of violence and intimidation that followed the action that we took to rescue what we could from the Quinn Group. There was, as you know, very strong, personal violence. There was sabotage of material and equipment, and intimidation – all of that was dreadful. “It didn’t in any sense justify for the remarks I made, which, as I say, I apologise for without any qualification.” On RTÉ Radio’s Today with Claire Byrne, Mr Dukes acknowledged that his comments were not well phrased. “I shouldn’t have said it in the way…