'We're not going away' -- INLA have message for McGuinness
Christopher 'Crip' McWilliams was buried yesterday in a full-scale paramilitary funeral. His wife, Julie, (above right, with long hair and fringe) carried her husband's remains from requiem Mass in Newry.
THE INLA last night issued a chilling warning to Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness, as they bluntly rejected his calls for dissident republican terror groups to disband.
During a graveside oration for Christopher "Crip" McWilliams (the killer of loyalist godfather Billy Wright), the organisation warned Mr McGuinness: "We have not gone away."
It came just 24 hours after the minister told a commemoration for IRA and Sinn Fein activists in Derry that it was time for all terror groups to "pack up and go away."
However, at a full-scale paramilitary funeral for the INLA man at Monkshill Cemetery, in Newry, a personal message was given to Mr McGuinness.
A man describing himself as a spokesman for the INLA said: "We have a message for the British micro minister and macro hypocrite Martin McGuinness -- we are not going away." There was a large paramilitary presence at the funeral, with many men, dressed in combat uniforms, black berets and wearing dark glasses, walking into the church behind the coffin.
McWilliams was regarded as a hero in republican circles for his part in the murder of loyalist Billy Wright in 1997. He was jailed for life but released early under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement in 2000. He died on Friday after losing a long battle with cancer.
