Poppy wreaths on Creggan bonfire disgraceful, says Londonderry MP
Poppy wreaths on a republican bonfire have been condemned as “absolutely disgraceful”.
East Londonderry MP Gregory Campbell blasted the pyre in his city’s Creggan estate after solemn tributes to the nation’s war dead were placed on it.
In an incident the police have confirmed is being treated as sectarian, the flags of both Northern Ireland and the United Kingdom, as well as political material, sashes and football shirts and the banner of Coleraine FC were all added to bonfires lit to jointly mark a major day in the Catholic church’s calendar and Troubles-era internment.
“This is not culture,” stated the DUP MP, adding that he believes the poppy wreaths had been stolen from war memorials.
“Reports of calls from the margins of the bonfire for the murder of protestants and police officers are particularly sinister,” he said. “There can be no place for such vile sectarian hatred or incitement to violence.”
He also turned his ire on significant figures in the republican movement generally, arguing that commemorations of past paramilitaries have set a tone that laid the ground for the bonfires.
“Political leadership matters,” he said.
“When republican leaders continually glorify terrorists and commemorate those who murdered in pursuit of their political objectives, they help create an environment where another generation can believe that violence is justified.
“Murdering police officers and murdering protestants was wrong, just as murdering anyone else was equally wrong. These scenes require unequivocal condemnation from across society.”