Unionist group hits out over council’s Northern Ireland centenary snub

The North West Cultural Partnership, an umbrella group representing several organisations such as the Londonderry Bands Forum, has said it is now “reconsidering” its role in several cross-community projects.

The organisation participates on the board of several cross community and regeneration projects in the region.

This comes after a majority of Derry City and Strabane councillors voted to opt out of supporting “any events that celebrates or commemorates the 100th anniversary of the partition of Ireland” despite opposition from both the DUP and UUP.

Next year will mark 100 years since Northern Ireland came into being following the Government of Ireland Act, which divided the island into two jurisdictions.

Brian Dougherty, a member of the North West Cultural Partnership board, said the motion “threatens to position the pro-Union community as cultural and historical outcasts within the city and Council area”.

He continued: “This is clearly a flawed motion passed by flawed and prejudiced thinking which is already having detrimental consequences on community relations.

“Political representatives need to realise very quickly the anger which is felt within the PUL (Protestant, Unionist, Loyalist) and pro-Union community.

“Parties who talk of a shared island and agreed Ireland seem to have limited understanding of what sharing means. We are particularly surprised at the stance of the SDLP in view of the fact that their two MPs at Westminster were quoted recently as saying that whilst they did not accept the invitation to take a place on the Centenary committee they would participate in debates and discussions.”

In a statement, an SDLP spokesperson said it was not “appropriate for council to organize events corporately and bear the cost of this”.

Mr Dougherty continued: “In light of the Council decision, we feel bound to ask how sincerely others approach the work and wonder, as a consequence, if the pro-Union community is used merely to access funding the vast bulk of which goes to areas and organisations which identify as Nationalist or Republican.”

He added: “We urgently require clarification. Otherwise, we as an organisation and our members will have no choice but re-consider our role on a number of regional boards.”