Jennifer McNern, who was 21 at the time, lost both legs in the 1972 Abercorn restaurant bombing. Ms McNern said she has felt compelled to take a judicial review to try to force payment of the pension. Former Northern Secretary Peter Hain in an article in Wednesday’s Irish Times said Sinn Féin seemed “to be wilfully misrepresenting the criteria for those severely injured to be paid the pension”. It argues the terms of the scheme could be used to block people from a republican background from getting pensions. Separately, however, Mr Cummings served a seven-year sentence for planting a hoax bomb, a conviction he is contesting.

Source: The Irish Times June 17, 2020 00:00 UTC