New date set for Belfast City Hall NI Centenary light up after double booking

Belfast City Hall will be lit up tomorrow night (Thursday) to mark Northern Ireland’s centenary, ending a period of doubt over the event.
By The Newsroom
Published 20th Oct 2021, 21:45 BST
Belfast City Hall will light up for the NI Centenary tomorrow night. Photograph by Declan Roughan / PresseyeBelfast City Hall will light up for the NI Centenary tomorrow night. Photograph by Declan Roughan / Presseye
Belfast City Hall will light up for the NI Centenary tomorrow night. Photograph by Declan Roughan / Presseye

Across the UK on Friday night plans have been put in place by the Northern Ireland Office to have buildings lit in blue and green to mark 100 years of Northern Ireland.

But not Belfast City Hall.

Due to an “administrative error”, the venue had already been booked on Friday night to be lit up in rainbow colours to mark 40 years since a landmark court ruling that led to the decriminalisation of homosexuality in Northern Ireland.

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Because of the ‘double booking’, until last night the lighting up of city hall for the centenary was up in the air, but then it was announced it would take place tomorrow night instead.

TUV North Belfast Assembly candidate Ron McDowell said: “It is incumbent on the council, which hasn’t exactly bowled anyone over with its efforts to mark the centenary, to spell out how the situation arose.

“I accept that anyone can make an error but this is a hugely significant event which deserved to marked in Belfast as it is in the rest of the UK and it simply isn’t good enough. Was the letter lost? When was it rediscovered? What other correspondence is going astray?”

A Belfast City Council spokesperson said: “The Party Group Leaders have agreed the alternative date for lighting up City Hall to mark the NI centenary, and that it will be tomorrow night. It will be lit blue and green.”

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Related topics:Northern IrelandBelfast City Council