Apology from Belfast culture and arts body after anti-English tweets

A north Belfast culture and arts body has “apologised unreservedly” after its official Twitter account published a string of anti-English and anti-Conservative messages.
By Mark Rainey
Published 26th May 2020, 16:17 BST
The Duncairn centre occupies the former Duncairn Presbyterian Church buildingThe Duncairn centre occupies the former Duncairn Presbyterian Church building
The Duncairn centre occupies the former Duncairn Presbyterian Church building

The spokesman for the Duncairn Art and Cultural Centre said it was proud to be a cross-community, non-political organisation and that the tweets were not authorised by the board.

Referencing the ongoing row over top government advisor Dominic Cummings, the controversial messages branded the Tories as “liars” and also attacked the English electorate.

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One tweet from the @TheDuncairn Twitter account said: “English electorate = gullible, right wing fanatics.”

Another said: “England, your politics are ______. TOLERATE LIARS AT YOUR PERIL.”

The Duncairn account also posted a number of retweets from those lambasting the government’s handling of the Cummings lockdown breach crisis.

On Tuesday, a spokesman told the News Letter: “The Duncairn Art and Cultural Centre is an intentional ‘shared space’ operated by an a-political, cross-community organisation and is proud to work with representatives from all political parties and backgrounds. We unreservedly apologise for a number of unauthorised tweets issued from our account yesterday.

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“The tweets do not represent the views of the board and were written without our knowledge or consent.”

The spokesman added: “After this event was brought to our attention an initial investigation was carried out and the employee has apologised to the board for the tweets which they mistakenly thought were being issued from a personal account.

“The employee has been warned about future conduct and removed from the social media admin role.”

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Related topics:TwitterBelfastDominic Cummings