32CSM member Gary Donnelly conditionally discharged

Mr Donnelly, a member of the 32 County Sovereignty Movement was conditionally discharged for one year on Tuesday (January 6) after appealing the six month sentence for criminal damage, imposed after he, and two others, painted the slogans on the Derry Walls.

Compensation of the Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA), which is party responsible for the upkeep of the monument, was ordered.

The SWP, which joined a protest outside the Bishop Street courthouse on Tuesday said more people would have spoken up for him if it were not for his political affiliations.

In a statement the group asked: “Would somebody with different politics who had painted a different slogan have been given the same sentence? Everybody knows the answer is no.”

The party continued: “The SWP is totally opposed to the politics of ‘armed struggle.’ That was our position throughout the armed campaign of the Provisional IRA. But this didn’t prevent us protesting against the denial of rights to people regarded as supporters of the IRA.

“We are unreservedly opposed to continuation of armed struggle. That tradition offers nothing to working-class people. It is futile, wasteful and counterproductive.”

Despite this the party said it would continue to uphold what it said were the civil rights of everyone, including people the party politically disapproves of.

The SWP said the potential of Mr Donnelly losing his Council seat “underlined the political nature of the whole affair.”

“His election last May was not welcomed by the SWP. But he is as entitled to his seat as anyone else who won a quota,” it said.

Mr Donnelly was the highest profile independent to be elected to the new Derry and Strabane Council by topping the poll in the Bogside and Creggan area of Londonderry last May.

Mr Donnelly exceeded a quota of 1,143 in The Moor DEA and was deemed elected with his first count total of 1,154 ahead of Kevin Campbell Sinn Féin (1,104 first preferences); Colin Kelly (775 first preferences); Patricia Logue Sinn Féin (997 first preferences) and Sean Carr SDLP (841 first preferences).

In backing Mr Donnelly the Creggan and Bogside elected as many republicans opposed to the PSNI and the Belfast Agreement as it did members of the SDLP last May.