A Sinn Féin councillor has dismissed criticism of his party’s sponsoring of an event for an IRA man from Co Wexford who blew himself up with his own bomb in 1996. After keeping silent on the controversy for days before the event was suddenly cancelled, Cllr Fionntán Ó Súilleabháin claimed that critics were offering “irrelevant historical nonsense”. Social media material in his own name referred to “Vol. Edward O’Brien” and his membership of “Óglaigh na hÉireann,” which is the Irish language name of the Irish Defence Forces. Read More Cllr Ó Súilleabháin said the name Óglaigh na hÉireann went back to 1913. Yet it was “being brought up when a family are trying to remember their son”.