Belfast City Council endorses Armed Forces Covenant by a single vote - over SDLP and Sinn Fein objections

Unionists on the council, with the backing of Alliance, managed to get the motion over the line by a single vote.

The DUP group leader Sarah Bunting told the News Letter this was a "great thing" and that the opposition to the motion from the SDLP and Sinn Fein had been "ridiculous" – though it is not yet the end of the story, and she expects the matter will return to council for further discussion in the coming months.

The covenant is a pledge drawn up by the government in 2011 to "all those who serve or have served in the Armed Forces of the Crown and their families".

It states that "the whole nation has a moral obligation to the members of the Naval Service, the Army and the Royal Air Force, together with their families", that "they deserve our respect and support, and fair treatment" and that they "should face no disadvantage compared to other citizens in the provision of public and commercial services".

DUP councillor for Ormiston James Lawlor brought a motion to support the covenant to the latest full council meeting on Thursday, after it had come before the Strategic Policy and Resources Committee before Christmas.

In that earlier committee, Sinn Fein had voted down a proposal to endorse the covenant.

Inviting the full council to revisit the question, councillor Lawlor said: "This council has a clear choice this evening: whether to present itself as all-encompassing and a city that is a welcoming place for everyone including our veterans, or to revert to narrow sectarianism.

"Thank you to Sinn Fein, through their attitude towards this motion, for confirming my suspicions that the First Minister's attendence at Remembrance Sunday on November last year was nothing more than a cheap political stunt to distract from their other issues."

Sinn Fein councillor Matt Garrett said he was objecting on the grounds of "equality".

"But it's whatever you interpretation of equality is, and ours clearly is different," he said.

"We do believe in equality and equality of services for everyone but that does not mean one particular group over another should be treated differently."

Aine Groogan of the Greens said her party adheres to "non-violence" and objects to "colonialism and empire", so would be abstaining.

Meanwhile councillor Michael Collins of People Before Profit also spoke against backing the covenant, and the SDLP also opposed it.

TUV councillor Ron McDowell recalled a friend of his, a grocer called Paul Kinnear, who joined the UDR part-time and was shot in the back by the IRA.

"Paul was paralysed and lay on a bed in a flat in Finaghy for 20 or 30 years of his life," he said.

"At times when his bedsores were bad he had to be turned on his side, and he lay for 24 hours a day facing a wall 12 inches from his face.

"What this covenant requests here is that people like Paul, and even other people who might have mental scars you can't see, are maybe just wee lads who have come from the streets, who had no other options in life, but who only saw the army as a way out, did a wee bit of service and are going back into Civvy Street – that they should face no disadvantage.

"If this council chamber can't pass a motion that fellas like that should face no disadvantage, then it’s an absolute shame on us all."

Councillor Long of the Alliance Party said he and colleagues backed the motion to support the covenant.

"All that's being asked for is that those who've served in the armed forces, their families, including the bereaved, should be treated with fairness and respect in communities," he said.

"From my point of view I want everybody to be treated with fairness and respect in our communities so I cannot understand why anybody would want to vote against something that brings about fairness, respect, is all about equality…

"I think it's disappointing we can't get a general agreement on this. It doesn't neccessarily surprise me, because we can seem to be able to make a fight out of pretty much anything in this place."

In the end the vote was 27 for to 27 against.

Alliance councillor Micky Murray – who is the Lord Mayor and thus chairman of the meeting – had a casting vote, and voted for the motion to pass.

However, the friction did not end there.

Sinn Fein then claimed one of their councillors, Aine McCabe, was having difficulty accessing the meeting online, so her vote should be taken into account.

After taking legal advice, this argument was rejected – though Sinn Fein announced they would "call in" that decision.

Then it attempted to reject the minutes of the original pre-Christmas Strategic Policy and Resources meeting, which threatened to invalidate the vote, though this did not succeed.

DUP group leader councillor Bunting said afterwards that the covenant motion now needs to be "equality screened", after which it will be brought back before the council again – when she expects more "rigmarole" and "hullaballoo" about it from Sinn Fein.