Name change meeting adjourned as a mark of respect

DUP Alderman Gregory Campbell joined in the condemnation of the murder.

He said the Real IRA assassination was equivalent to similar murders carried out by the IRA twenty or thirty years ago.

"People need to go further than condemnation," he said.

"The only way this will be stopped will be whenever the information comes from the wider community in order to apprehend those responsible," he added.

UUP Alderman Mary Hamilton said she "totally condemned" Mr Doherty's murder.

A survivor of the Claudy bombing Mrs Hamilton said: "A lot of us know what it was like having suffered in the past."

The comments came after the SDLP's Helen Quigley proposed the meeting be adjourned until after the funeral of the 31-year-old who was shot dead in the city on Wednesday night.

She said it was a "despicable murder" that was as wrong when it occured in past decades as it was now.

The proposal was seconded by Sinn Fin. Councillor Maeve McLaughlin said it would have been inappropriate to proceed in the wake of the murder.

She said his assassination by the Real IRA had been "outrageous and horrific."

There was unanimous and "outright condemnation" and the meeting on the name change was adjourned as a mark of respect.

Earlier this week the Sentinel revealed the vast majority of respondents to an Equality Impact Assessment (EQIA) on the divisive proposal were against any move to expunge "Londonderry" from the official record.

Over nine thousand people said they were broadly against the proposal; this was three times the number of people who said they were broadly in support of a move to change the city's name to "Derry."

A council report - seen by the Sentinel- advises local representatives that they can either rubber stamp, scrap or park the original proposal.

An alternative suggestion is that the Privy Council be asked to have the name of the city amended to "Derry, known equally as 'Londonderry' and 'Doire'," or that there be no amendment to the name "but that the extent of the 'city of Londonderry' be amended, for example, the area within the walls, while the modern urban city be called 'Derry.'"

The bid to change the name has sparked uproar amongst the Protestant population of the city. It also inspired a campaign to safeguard the role of the London guilds in establishing the city, implicit in the term "Londonderry."

Councillors have been urged to pay particular attention to reports by the Equality Commission and the Community Relations Council.

Responding to the EQIA ,the Community Relations Council acknowledged the fact that "no dispute about nomenclature has had such symbolic significance as that of the second largest city" and "the change of name of the City Council from Londonderry to Derry was itself highly controversial".

The CRC also warned that in an "either-or" scenario, the move to change the name could be seen as an act of "liberation from British imperial occupation or (alternatively) as an act of cultural genocide by Irish nationalism which presages a wider campaign of intolerance and exclusion".

The CRC warned that Northern Ireland's political structures are based on accommodation of difference with loss of identity, and that this approach continues to be necessary.

Equally, the Equality Commission said "that good relations in this instance have been insufficiently addressed by the Council."

Despite the vast majority of people responding to the EQIA having lodged their disapproval at the bid, councillors are being advised the consultation was not a plebiscite and cannot be treated as such.

A council report guiding local representatives scheduled to attend the meeting states: "It is important to remember that an EQIA is not a quasi-referendum or quasi-plebiscite, determinative of the question one way or another. This is a point also emphasised by the Equality Commission in its response."

In the documents seen by the Sentinel, the council - which is mostly nationalist - is invited to either continue with the original proposal; abandon the proposal; defer any decision to proceed pending further consultation; or continue with an application to the Privy council with the amendment mentioned above.