New battle looms in Belfast's war over Armed Forces Covenant: Unionists and nationalists square up as issue hits council again tomorrow

The city’s council is set to once again debate the set of pledges providing help for veterans struggling to adjust to civilian life, which was adopted by the body only for Sinn Fein to launch a bid to block it.

Following on the heels of months of battles over the covenant in 2024 and 2025, in March the council’s Standards and Business Committee voted to sign up to the pledges due to unionist and Alliance backing – a move that earned the ire of nationalists, with the SDLP blasting the vote as “undemocratic”.

The covenant is now due to come to that committee once more, its Tuesday night meeting to see a showdown over Sinn Fein’s motion to rescind last month’s decision.

Signed by 11 councillors from the nationalist party, the rescinding motion argues the March vote should be discounted as politicians didn’t consider potential spending associated with the covenant, either through assigning officials to work on it or staging a special signing ceremony.

The Standards and Business Committee has special powers that can adopt suggestions straight into policy, without having them debated by the full council as is usual. The DUP used those powers to get the covenant approved; Sinn Fein argue that shouldn’t have happened, and the issue needs to go before all 60 councillors for a vote.

That could prove to be an uphill struggle, as in the past a combination of unionists and Alliance hasn’t been enough to get the covenant approved in the face of a consolidated front of nationalists opposed to the pledges.

Previous attempts to push the covenant through a full council meeting have fallen by a single vote, the nationalist bloc narrowly outnumbering the unionist plus Alliance side while the Greens abstain citing anti-war principles.

Last month the pledges were adopted as policy on the say of the DUP, Alliance and TUV, a vote to use the Standards and Business Committee’s special powers and skip a full council meeting winning by 10 votes in favour to eight against.

That resulted in complaints from SDLP group leader Seamas de Faoite, who accused unionists of trying “to force through a policy that has been voted down before at full council” – something he branded “ridiculous”.

A poll of all 60 politicians on Belfast Council would, he argued, result in a different outcome to the committee vote and the covenant “would have been defeated again”.

Mr de Faoite added: “This is perhaps an undemocratic and underhanded way to try and get a policy agreed.”

The DUP subsequently hit back, with party councillor James Lawlor – who launched the covenant move and is the council’s armed forces champion – arguing his opponents don’t have a leg to stand on, given nationalist enthusiasm for a policy that sees Irish language signs built on city streets if just 15% of residents are in favour.

That policy was recently in the headlines when two-thirds of an east Belfast street said they didn’t want Irish signs, while 15.66% were in favour. Nationalists demanded they be put up anyway, though they were defeated in that bid by a single vote.