Unionists made huge mistake in rejecting an all purpose stadium at the Maze

The unionist parties have only themselves to blame for the self-created fiasco surrounding the huge funding now required for the rebuilding of Casement Park.

They, cheered on by a section of supporters of the Northern Ireland football team mainly from the Greater Belfast area killed the proposed all purpose stadium at the Maze which in 2005, was then costed at around £55 million.

Much was made of the hospital in which the hungers strikers died and its proximity to the proposed stadium.

It was termed a ‘Republican Shrine’ for maximum emotional impact yet it could have been equally used to illustrate the heinous crimes of some of the hunger strikers and also allow the victims’ narrative to be told. It would have had enormous tourism potential.

What they have achieved now is the creation of a stadium only slightly smaller than the original Maze model in the midst of a republican area in West Belfast on the very site which has the propensity to become shrine to the vile mob which brutally murdered the two army corporals, Derek Wood and David Howes there on March 19 1988.

Windsor Park capacity has proved to be too inadequate for matches when the Northern Ireland team is doing well and far too big for Irish League matches where the attendances are usually less than 2,500.

All the main parties on Lisburn City Council including Sinn Fein supported the Maze proposal as did the then chief executive of the Irish Football Association Howard Wells.

In addition to a section of disgruntled football fans who feared they might become disorientated once they went beyond Finaghy, the usual Belfast business lobby fought tooth and nail to keep all three stadia, with no parking facilities, within Belfast.

The offer to rebuild Casement was used to draw Sinn Fein away from their support for the Maze but it still continues to veto any further development at the Maze until the provision for a Peace and Reconciliation building is promised but of course the European money for that has now been lost.

In 2019 the chairman of the Long Kesh Maze Development Corporation declared that the site “has the transformational potential of acting as a catalyst for the delivery of £800 million investment and up to 14,000 high quality, sustainable jobs”.

Can the leaders of the unionist parties please now confirm that no money will be made available for the Casement Park project unless and until Sinn Fein lifts its veto on the long delayed development of the Maze site?

It is an immense tragedy that had direct rule not been ended by the re-introduction of devolution, the Maze Stadium would have been built, the area around it developed and the John Lewis store with its 800 well paid jobs would operating from Sprucefield.

We know that it is the goal of republicans to destroy our economy but who would have ever thought that our unionist parties would be implicit in it?

There can be no clearer argument for the immediate termination of this failed, massively incompetent and grossly wasteful system of government.

Ronnie Crawford, Dromore, Co Down

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