The Loyalist Communities Council (LCC) hits back at critics after objecting to new Irish language school in east Belfast
The Loyalist Communities Council (LCC) has asked why critics objected to it for raising a new Irish language school in east Belfast with Education Minister Paul Givan when loyalism has been urged by many to transition into democratic politics.
The LCC, chaired by David Campbell, is an umbrella group which represents the Ulster Volunteer Force, Ulster Defence Association and Red Hand Commando.
A spokesperson for the Department of Education said the meeting had been arranged at the LCC’s request and had discussed educational underachievement in loyalist areas.
The meeting was criticised by Sinn Fein MP John Finucane and former UUP leader Doug Beattie.
But Mr Campbell has now branded the backlash facing the LCC as "political hypocrisy".
He said: "For years now these self-righteous 'politicians' who have benefitted from the peace agreement made by, amongst others, key members of the LCC, have preached the need for loyalism to move away from protest to politics."
Mr Campbell said the LCC asked for the meeting following a public meeting in east Belfast with several hundred locals who "unanimously" opposed "the imposition" of the school and asked the LCC to raise with the minister.
He said the meeting with the minister "dealt primarily" with educational underachievement and inequality in loyalist areas and it was “their democratic right to lobby”.
It is strange that the Assembly Education Committee is seeking an explanation from Paul Givan about the meeting, he said, when there was no complaint about the LCC meeting John O'Dowd as education minister or Martin McGuiness as deputy First Minister.
Such politicians should have learned from the example of David Trimble, John Hume, and Martin McGuinness of “inclusion, dialogue, and respect”.
He added that the LCC, and most unionists have no objection to anyone learning Irish Gaelic, but rather to the "weaponisation of the language as a means of de-Britishifying Northern Ireland".
He said Irish language development gets "ten times" the funding given to the Ulster Scots and British tradition.
Republicans are "never challenged about their failure to truly transform or their continued links to serious organised crime" he said, while he has witnessed "a massive transformation in loyalism over the past ten years with the focus on community development and the wholesale rejection of criminality".
Methodist minister Rev Andrew Irvine, who is chairman of the new school, says that the Department of Education is not putting any money directly into the school as it "is completely self funded".
He said there are 600 people in east Belfast - mainly Protestant - currently learning Irish and that 100 people have given expressions of interest in the new school.
Belfast City Council held a consultation on the matter and got two objections and nine letters of support, he said.
"One of the key objections was that the land is zoned for employment, but the school's going to be an employer."
Former east Belfast PUP and UUP Councillor John Kyle said anyone should be free to meet the department of education and underachievement is a genuine issue. But he said the LCC had "failed" in facilitating the transitioning of paramilitaries, which he said do "enormous damage" to the education for children.
He added: "To decisively ‘leave the stage’ would be far more beneficial for these young people than any meeting with the Minister of Education."