Parties will face down Sinn Fein on city hall statue provision

The Alliance group leader said that with every main party but Sinn Fein in agreement, the plan to commemorate Irish republican Winifred Carney with a bench rather than a statue was an appropriate way forward.

Following four years of discussions between the parties, there was a consensus that several people would have their contributions to society recognised with a statue or other tribute.

Permanent statues of trade unionist Inez McCormack and SDLP co-founder Paddy Devlin are included in the plans – with other tributes to address a lack of recognition for nationalists, women, ethnic minority communities and the working class.

Cllr Long said the five parties had agreed that Catholic, republican Carney could be commemorated along with her husband, George McBride, who was a working class Protestant and one of Carson’s volunteers who fought at the Somme.

“We wanted to have them commemorated together – it’s a Romeo and Juliet story for Belfast,” he said.

Sinn Fein has decided to activate the ‘call in’ process, meaning the decision of the relevant committee will now be subject to independent legal scrutiny to ensure it has been properly reached.

Cllr Long said: “I think the rest of [the leaders] have worked very constructively and that has been ongoing for a long time, and I’m delighted that we managed to get five of the six parties to agree.

“I just think it was very disappointing. They are throwing their toys out of the pram because they haven’t got exactly what they want.”

PUP leader Billy Hutchinson said Sinn Fein were attempting to depict Carney “from a narrow minded and short sighted republican perspective,” while his fellow PUP councillor Julie-Anne Corr-Johnston said: “We felt it was a really poignant story to tell...but Sinn Fein just wanted to have a sole statue of Winifred Carney. We said we would like a statue of both of them as something that would explain the relationship.”

Sinn Fein councillor Ciaran Beattie said: “Republican citizens of Belfast need to know their history will not continue to be excluded from the grounds of Belfast City Hall and that the imbalance against republicans will begin to be properly addressed.”