Sinn Fein slammed for their role in dampening NI Centenary celebrations

Alderman Jim Speers, the Ulster Unionist Party’s Group Leader on ABC Council, said: “This action by Sinn Fein displays the level of intolerance that party shows to unionism or any aspect of unionist culture or identity.

“Northern Ireland is our home and it has existed for 100 years. Partition came into being when Michael Collins and Arthur Griffiths signed the Treaty on December 6, 1921.

“Sinn Fein are very fond of demanding respect for International Agreements in 2021, yet here is one from a century ago that they seem to have conveniently forgotten about.

“Sinn Fein claim to want to create an ‘agreed Ireland’ and ‘an Ireland of equals’. But they have repeatedly shown that they cannot share the present, so how can they expect anyone – let alone unionists – to believe they would be prepared to share the future? Actions speak louder than words.”

In 2018 SF president Mary Lou McDonald said her party would not take part in events where unionists celebrated the creation of their “wee statelet”.

During the last 12 months Sinn Fein has used political power to stop some NI centenary commemorations from taking place.

The party had a veto on having Parliament Buildings illuminated, and then councillors on Belfast City Council blocked a request to light up the city hall.

In recent months a number of other initiatives have been vetoed by SF, including a proposal to have a bed of centenary roses on display at Stormont, and a proposal to have a commemorative stone monument erected.

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