Row over IRA atrocity banners in mixed Belfast area

Voices of protest have been raised after banners featuring IRA atrocities were erected in a mixed housing area in south Belfast.
One of the new IRA atrocity banners in south BelfastOne of the new IRA atrocity banners in south Belfast
One of the new IRA atrocity banners in south Belfast

Banners featuring the Shankill bombing and other IRA atrocities are featured on the banners erected at Cantrell Close and Global Crescent, just off the Ravenhill Road in south Belfast, on Sunday.

Each banner features the social media hashtag #StandUpAgainstSectarianism, which was originally created by Sinn Fein.

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Cantrell Close was planned as a mixed housing development but last year hit the headlines when loyalist flags were attached to lampposts, prompting protests. Several Catholic families later left due to threats.

Loyalist blogger and EBCI spokesman Jamie Bryson. Photo: Jonathan Porter/PressEye.comLoyalist blogger and EBCI spokesman Jamie Bryson. Photo: Jonathan Porter/PressEye.com
Loyalist blogger and EBCI spokesman Jamie Bryson. Photo: Jonathan Porter/PressEye.com

Speaking on behalf of the East Belfast Community Initiate (EBCI), Jamie Bryson said the latest banners were designed to exploit media interest.

“I think the members of that local community that put up flags each year, I think they recognise that the lampposts in those particular areas have probably become the most focused-upon lampposts anywhere in Northern Ireland, thanks to Sinn Fein and the Alliance Party,” he told the Nolan Show.

“Last year I think we even had the New York Times covering the story. So with such media attention on the lampposts I think the people there felt it was an opportunity to highlight the sectarian campaign that was waged by the IRA against the Protestant people.”

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Mr Bryson said the names of his EBCI committee are not in the public domain but that its role is to “carry out mediation along with ex-combatants linked to the east Belfast UVF”.

Flags for the 1912 UVF are now flying nearby in the Ravenhill Avenue areaFlags for the 1912 UVF are now flying nearby in the Ravenhill Avenue area
Flags for the 1912 UVF are now flying nearby in the Ravenhill Avenue area

The group recently launched a flags protocol ruling out the use of all illegal flags in the area. He said UVF flags are currently flying in the nearby Ravenhill Avenue area but that these relate to the original 1912 British regiment and not the paramilitary group.

But SDLP MLA Claire Hanna questioned who was behind the banners.

“Again we have an anonymous and completely unaccountable front group who have stomped into this neighbourhood,” she said.

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“The public housing was designed to be a shared neighbourhood and they have claimed the lampposts for some political stunt. It is pretty Orwellian here because we have apologists and members of one sectarian murder gang trying to preach anti-sectarianism on the back of atrocities committed by another sectarian murder gang.”

Alan McBride, whose wife and father-in-law were killed in the IRA Shankill bombing, said the banner now erected in memory of that attack was “grotesque whataboutery” and that the atrocity is “being used in this way to score points”.

Radius Housing Association said there had been no consultation with residents and that it had contacted the police. However, the PSNI said it only acts to remove flags if there are “substantial risks to public safety”.

Alliance councillor Michael Long said the IRA terrorism – and the use of it for “point scoring” – was “disgusting” while Sinn Fein MLA Máirtín Ó Muilleoir said those responsible were using “the politics of division and subtraction”. Neither the DUP nor UUP offered any comment.