'˜Not going back to 1690'

Councillor McGuigan made the comments after submitting a Sinn Féin challenge to the Council Chief Executive to the decision to fund a number of groups organising Battle of the Somme events but not fund groups planning events to remember the 1916 Easter Rising and other events in this decade of important centenaries.

Councillor McGuigan said: “This is the third instance in a short space of time that Sinn Féin have had to initiate a challenge to decisions taken by Unionist Councillors on the Council. This decision like the others could quite easily have been dealt with on the basis of fairness, recognising that citizens in this Borough have diverse political and historical opinions. Instead Unionist have decided to fund £40k to a small number of groups solely dealing with the Battle of the Somme.

“They overturned a previous decision that would have allowed all groups within the Borough wishing to organise events the opportunity to apply for funding on an equal basis and with proper criteria attached to the process.

“Sinn Fein have challenged this on the basis of improper process and on the basis that the decision will disproportionately affect adversely the Nationalist and Republican community in the Borough and we certainly think that any of these groups could easily challenge this decision.”