SINN FÉIN ARDFHEIS:RAYMOND McCORD, the first unionist to address a Sinn Féin ardfheis, was warmly applauded last night when he told delegates there must be "no surrender to collusion".
Sinn Féin MLA Alex Maskey, introducing Mr McCord, described him as an "unrepentant unionist who very often finds novel ways of making his point" - a reference to how the north Belfast man delivered his address while wearing his late father, Hector's Orange Order collarette.
Mr McCord told The Irish Times that while not a member of the order, he wore the collarette to emphasise his own unionist background and to make the point that "times have changed for the better".
He said he had no difficulty in attending the ardfheis and would campaign for justice for his son from any platform that was available.
Mr McCord's 22-year-old son Raymond jnr was murdered in 1997 by Mark Haddock's north Belfast UVF gang. Former police ombudsman Nuala O'Loan's investigation of how the police handled the murder investigation led to her damning report, Operation Ballast.
This found that there was collusion between the police and Haddock and his UVF team at a time when they killed at least 10 people including McCord jnr.
Mr McCord said he was honoured to have been invited to speak about Raymond jnr who was "murdered by UVF members who were working for the [ British] state". He said as a unionist he believed allegations of collusion were examples of "republican propaganda . . . but I learned the hard way it was not republican propaganda".
Mr McCord has run a dedicated campaign to have his son's killers brought to justice, lobbying politicians in Britain and Ireland and also taking his battle to Europe and Washington.
Mr McCord said that unionist politicians, particularly the DUP, had consistently refused to assist him while Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams, whom he contacted about the murder last year, had, as promised, raised the murder in Downing Street.
He said the majority of unionists were "not bigots, were not power mad and we don't tell lies".
Mr McCord said while he supported Sinn Féin's call for the transfer of policing and justice powers to the Northern Executive, he had reservations about how the DUP in control of a department of justice would address the reality of collusion.
"One thing I can say, and these are Paisley's words, there will be no surrender to collusion," concluded Mr McCord, to applause from the conference.
