Delay in axing Boucher Road concerts 'discrimination' - Sinn Fein
Opposition to axing concerts from Belfast’s Boucher Road playing fields amounts to discrimination, Sinn Fein have claimed.
During a hot-tempered debate on the issue in Belfast City Council tonight, the nationalist party insisted that attempts to put off a decision on the move were motivated by opposition to the GAA.
The plan would see Belfast lose its main venue for large-scale outdoor concerts, turning it over exclusively to community sports. It will also see the council build two GAA pitches and one football pitch at the site.
But councillors from the DUP, Alliance and the Greens wanted the idea temporarily parked while other options are explored. The unionists hoped to see Boucher Road used for both sports and music, while Alliance and the Greens were concerned that city officials hadn’t worked out where major gigs could happen instead, potentially hurting Belfast’s live music economy and tourism draw.
The suggestion of postponing a decision to get additional info outraged Sinn Fein, with its councillors angrily accusing their opponents of “singling out” GAA – which one of the party’s politicians described as the “indigenous sport” of Ireland.
Sinn Fein’s group leader, councillor Ciaran Beattie, threatened to take any delay to equality authorities.
“There’s one way to describe this, and it’s discrimination,” he said. “The only two sites people have issues with are GAA pitches.
“We have looked at pitches right across our whole town and there’s very few places you can find to put a GAA pitch, because of the size of them. That’s the reality.
“We do think [a delay] is discriminatory, and we do feel GAA has been picked out, and we will be challenging it. We think this is in breach of our equality legislation and we would hope people would give their heads a shake.”
Councillor Natasha Brennan attacked Boucher Road’s ability to host large-scale gigs, stating she’d read social media comments critical of its sound quality as well as traffic and parking issues.
“It is not the venue, it is not the place we want it to be,” said the Sinn Fein politician, arguing the site should instead be a “first-class sports hub”.
Sinn Fein also repeatedly stated there was a “deficit” in GAA grounds across the city, reinforcing that the council has legal requirements obliging it to provide sports pitches but doesn’t have a similar duty to have concert venues.
In 2021, Belfast was named a UNESCO city of music, only the third time that award had been given to a UK location and the first time it happened on the island of Ireland. Alliance councillor Micky Murray stated that happened “in spite of” the council, rather than because of it.
"Now we have it, it’s our responsibility to protect and build on it,” he said. “I’m not opposed to Boucher Road eventually ceasing as an event space, but doing so without understanding the repercussions and without securing an alternative is extremely short-sighted.”
A joint DUP and Alliance motion to delay the plan so the council could investigate alternative options and the possibility of running Boucher Road as a joint music and sport venue, as well as affirming its commitment to grassroots music, was narrowly approved by a majority of two votes.