Shandon Park Belfast Irish Sign: Republicans wrote the manual on vandalising signs which loyalists are now following, says UUP leader Mike Nesbitt
The person who used an angle grinder to cut the Irish out of a street sign in East Belfast was following the example that republicans have set for decades in attacking signs, the UUP leader has said.
Mike Nesbitt was speaking after an angle grinder was used to cut the Irish section off a new bilingual street sign in Shandon Park in east Belfast on Saturday evening..
He said that republicans have for many years defaced "Londonderry" road signs and also signs which say "Welcome to Northern Ireland".
Mr Nesbitt said of the weekend vandalism in east Belfast: "That act - pure and simple - was wrong, and so I condemn it without reservation."
He also warned those behind the vandalism that they are helping republican strategists by portraying unionism and loyalism as "intransigent, unwilling to cooperate and insular".
But he also hit out at Belfast councillors behind the street sign policy, saying they "are using majoritarianism for your own advantage" which he argued was contrary to the spirit of the Good Friday Agreement.
The long tradition of vandalising street signs, he said, began with republicans - and that loyalists are now following their example.
"For years, you and I have driven past signs for Londonderry with the 'London' blanked out," he told the Stephen Nolan Show.
He also pointed out that signs that his party colleague Danny Kennedy introduced when Infrastructure Minister - saying Welcome to Northern Ireland - were also widely vandalised.
"So the people who did that have written the short manual that the people who did what happened at the weekend in Shandon Park are using."
However, he said the lesson of the Flag Protests still stood true today - Belfast loyalists must start voting consistently if they want enough unionist councillors to influence council policies.
The health minister said he has "no problem with the irish language - except that it was weaponized by the Republican movement some years ago with that famous phrase in the past, every word spoken in irish is a bullet fired [for Irish freedom]."
He added: "I think it's up to those who weaponize the Irish language to deweaponize it and to bring people along with them."