Condolences to Hassan family

Speaking in the Dáil on Wednesday, Sinn Féin TD Caoimhghin Ó Caoláin joined with other party leaders in offering condolences to the husband and family of murdered Irish Iraqi aid worker, Margaret Hassan.

"Her cruel captivity and death serve no cause," he said. "Her dedicated service to and embrace of the Iraqi people for over 30 years only emphasises the outrage of her murder.

"An opponent of the US/British invasion of Iraq, Margaret Hassan represented the views of the overwhelming mass of Irish opinion. We have lost someone of whom we, as a people, can be justly proud.

"Her death demands a re-evaluation of this State's shameful assistance for and association with the US-led war in Iraq — not in response to her murder but because it is the right thing to do and because that is what Margaret Hassan would have wished."

• Sinn Féin MEPs Bairbre de Brún and Mary Lou McDonald on Monday issued a joint statement calling for the Iraqi Red Cross and Iraqi Red Crescent to be allowed unrestricted access to the civilians of Fallujah to provide medical and food aid and for the assault on Fallujah to end immediately.

The Sinn Féin MEPs were speaking after a week of intense fighting in the Iraqi city and amidst reports that relief services have been prohibited entry.