Nationalists reacted with fury today after DUP leader Arlene Foster launched a bitter broadside against restorative justice campaigner Harry Maguire.

Writing on Twitter, the First Minister said the Andersonstown bridge-builder should be in prison rather than taking part in an online meeting with PSNI Chief Constable Simon Byrne.

The outburst comes less than a month after DUP leaders sat down with the Loyalist Communities Council, the organisation which represents loyalist paramilitaries, including the UVF and UDA, to discuss the Brexit Northern Irish protocol. At the time, the party said the meeting was "constructive and useful".

Arlene Foster's comments sparked a blizzard of criticism on social media with many commentating on the party's links to Ulster Resistance and its belated commitment to the Good Friday Agreement which greenlighted prisoner releases – underlined almost daily in DUP commentary on the Irish Sea Border.

DEBATE: Harry Maguire (third from left) taking part in a discussion about restorative justice as part of Féile an Phobail in 2017 with PSNI officers and community leaders.
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DEBATE: Harry Maguire (third from left) taking part in a discussion about restorative justice as part of Féile an Phobail in 2017 with PSNI officers and community leaders.

Harry Maguire was given a life sentence for the killings of two armed British Army corporals who drove into the cortege of IRA volunteer Caoimhín Ó Brádaigh in March 1988. Andersonstown man Ó Brádaigh had been shot just days earlier by UDA gunman Michael Stone who attacked the Milltown Cemetery funerals of three unarmed IRA members shot dead by the SAS in Gibraltar. At the time, mourners at Caoimhín Ó Brádaigh's funeral feared they were coming under attack by loyalists in a carbon copy of the Milltown massacre. 

Mr Maguire was released under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement and went on to spearhead the work of the Committee for Restorative Justice in working class communities across Belfast. In that work, he has met with a succession of PSNI Chief Constables. 

For the best part of two decades, he has also been central to initiatives to build cross-community bridges to loyalist communities and in the efforts to encourage dissident republicans to end their campaign.

Both his own home and the home of his mother have been attacked by criminal elements as a direct result of his work. 

REGULAR PSNI CONTACTS: Harry Maguire pictured after taking part in then Chief Constable George Hamilton's first meeting with community groups at Farset International on the Springfield Road in 2014.
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REGULAR PSNI CONTACTS: Harry Maguire pictured after taking part in then Chief Constable George Hamilton's first meeting with community groups at Farset International on the Springfield Road in 2014.

Responding to Mrs Forster, West Belfast MP Paul Maskey praised Harry Maguire's record of community endeavour and said he was proud to work with him. 

“Harry Maguire has spent decades working on behalf of the community and as part of that work he has engaged with the police at all levels in an effort to make policing accountable to the community," he told belfastmedia.com. “Together with other ex-prisoners, he has made a huge contribution to building the peace process. He has engaged with the police at all levels for many years. Both he and his family have suffered attacks as a result of his work for the community but have not been deterred. I am proud to know and work with Harry Maguire and will continue to do so.”