A republican calendar which shows pictures of the charred shell of a car after a Real IRA bomb attack on a Catholic police officer has been branded as "sick" by unionists.
The calendar has been produced by the Irish Republican Prisoners Welfare Association (IRPWA) - a body which campaigns for Real IRA prisoners and is currently on sale in Derry. The front cover says it was "designed by republican POWs."
It feature
s a photograph of PSNI officers in forensic suits examining the wreckage of a car which exploded in the village of Spamount, near Castlederg, in May 2008. It was being driven by a Catholic off-duty PSNI officer who was on his way to start a night shift at Enniskillen PSNI station when the bomb exploded. Ryan Crozier sustained serious leg injuries in the bomb attack and had to have surgery.
The attack was later claimed by the Real IRA who boasted they used semtex to make the device.
Tyrone DUP councillor Allan Bresland described the publication of the photo as a "sick joke" and called for it to be withdrawn. "I think it is a disgrace to be gloating about something like this. The way they attacked this man was cowardly and it is even more cowardly to gloat about it. This shows the type of people who are behind these attacks.
Colr. Bresland said the calendar would add to the hurt of the injured police officer and his family. "This man and his family have suffered enough and if they see this it is bound to make matters worse. This man had a lucky escape and it is a sick joke to gloat about it," he said.
The calendar also features a number of pictures of masked republican colour parties and a masked member of the Real IRA reading a statement at an Easter Rising commemoration in the City Cemetery in Derry. Several photographs show masked men posing with AK47 assault rifles and firing a volley of shots in the air.
A photograph of members of the 32 County Sovereignty Movement marching behind an IRPWA banner at this year's Bloody Sunday commemoration march is also included. The calendar also shows young people attacking a PSNI Land Rover with bottles and stones in the Creggan area of the city following a dissident republican commemoration event.