Sinn Fein event at Bobby Sands statue is latest case of party 'placing itself above law'

A statue to him was erected last year without planning permission in Twinbrook, west Belfast, and today a Sinn Fein MLA said the statue was “going nowhere”.

A DUP motion before Belfast City Council last Thursday calling for the matter to be “reconsidered” was passed, with support from other unionists and the Alliance Party.

Today, people gathered at the Sands statue to mark 45 years since the republican’s death.

Sinn Fein MLA Danny Baker said the 10 hunger strikers who died had inspired “many generations and many generations here to come”.

He told the crowd: “The spirit of the prisoners (and) our communities can never be broken.

“Our opponents were shook to their core last year and will continue to be because we are on a path, a path to Irish unity, based on equality and rights.

“There’s one very simple message I was asked to give today: the statue is going nowhere, not now and not ever.”

Sinn Fein MLA Pat Sheehan told the crowd that Sands “is an icon and legend for freedom-loving people throughout the world” and that in recent weeks, his “memory and legacy has been attacked by those who have a selective memory”.

He said emergence of the IRA was “a direct response to the violent and repressive nature of the orange state, layered upon 800 years of British colonial occupation”.

“I say to unionists, save your lectures and your moralising for others,” he said.

“We will commemorate our patriot dead in our own way.”

He compared unionists voting for a reassessment of the Sands statue to efforts by British prime minister Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s to “criminalise” Sands, reported the Press Association.

“Forty-five years later, today in 2026, those in unionism will also fail,” he said.

“This statue of Bobby Sands has pride of place and will have pride of place here in Twinbrook, in Bobby’s home community for generations to come.

“When all of us here today are dead and gone, and largely forgotten about, Bobby Sands will still be remembered. He and his comrades will remain a beacon of light for freedom-loving people everywhere.”

Mr Sheehan also said that unionism “wants to turn back the clock” and that “we are within touching distance of ending the injustice of partition and reuniting our country”.

But DUP North Belfast MLA Phillip Brett said Sinn Fein’s defence of the statue was “a brazen attempt to place themselves above the law – just like they did with Covid restrictions and Bobby Storey’s funeral.”

He added: “This statue was erected without planning permission, yet rather than respecting due process, they are defiantly saying the rules simply do not apply to them. Utter arrogance.

“As Sinn Fein learned at the Egyptian Arch in Newry, this approach doesn’t work.”

(In March, an illegal billboard linked to Sinn Fein was removed in Newry after political debate).

“They are the largest party in Belfast City Council, they cannot behave as though they are above the rules they expect others to follow,” he added.

“There must be one law for everyone, and planning regulations cannot be selectively enforced depending on who is involved.”

TUV legacy spokesman Sammy Morrison said the unveiling was “shamefully” attended by Michelle O’Neill which he said makes “a mockery of her pledge of office to uphold the rule of law”.

He added: “The death and destruction caused by Sands and the IRA continues to blight many lives. That shameful legacy is not one to be proud of.

“It takes an incredible brass neck to stand at an illegal statue which defies the law which ordinary citizens are bound by, and then to deliver a lecture on equality and rights.”

True equality, he said, would see the statue removed.

“Sands didn’t need Margaret Thatcher to criminalise him. He did that all by himself when he decided to go out to bomb a furniture shop because the owners were Protestant.

“Far from being a beacon of light he reminds us of the heart of darkness which resides within Irish republicanism and its cult of death to this very day.”