Unionist parts of Belfast will “feel it the most” if there is any planning enforcement against paramilitary memorials built without permission, it was warned on Friday.
Sinn Féin made the claim as the row over a Bobby Sands statue in west Belfast sparked a threat of legal action.
There are believed to be hundreds of paramilitary memorials across Belfast, many or most of which do not have planning permission.
Sinn Féin is now considering legal action after its proposal for Belfast City Council to review all illegally erected memorials across the city was rejected in favour of a DUP motion calling for a detailed examination of decisions made regarding the Bobby Sands statue in west Belfast only.
That review by the planning committee follows a tense vote at an emergency full council meeting on Thursday over the statue of the late IRA hunger striker in the nationalist Twinbrook area where he grew up.
The statue was erected without planning permission on Housing Executive-owned land last May, but earlier this month the council had said it would take no further action against it following a probe.
That decision was overturned following Thursday’s vote, with DUP motion proposer, Councillor Dean McCullough, saying the determination not to take enforcement action “strikes at the very heart of public confidence in this council”.
The council told The Irish News it does not have a figure for the number of illegally erected paramilitary memorials in the city.
Sinn Féin party group leader on Belfast City Council Ciaran Beattie referred to loyalist memorials at Wednesday’s meeting, stating that in the Shankill area, “every street corner has a mural or a plaque, and none of them have planning permission”.
The party had said the DUP initially planned to back their proposed amendment calling for a wider review of all memorials erected without permission, but the DUP said following the heated debate they would not support an amendment to their motion.
Speaking on Friday to the Irish News, Councillor Beattie said his party was considering legal action as the response to memorials “must be equal across the board”.
“The DUP proposal was a nonsense, and it’s a stupid strategy by them,” he said.
“This is something we will be looking at legally, and the DUP knows they have made a blunder here, as if this is eventually examined in detail, it will be unionist areas that will feel it the most, as that is where the majority of memorials are located.
“However, we believe this still needs to be dealt with in a sensitive manner, as it’s about people remembering their dead.”
Bobby Sands statue in Twinbrook. PICTURE: MAL MCCANN
Secretary of the Bobby Sands Trust, former Sinn Féin publicity director Danny Morrison said on Friday of unionist councillors “the hypocrisy is stunning”.
“Unionists had no problem with illegal monuments, plaques, murals and memorial gardens in largely working class loyalist areas,” he said.
Mr Morrison added: “We know the real reason for this debate has got nothing to do with a universal principle to be applied to everyone but everything to do with unionists resenting the fact they can no longer control the narrative about the history of Belfast and how there are no longer second-class citizens in this city.”
Among the loyalist memorials in the city is a large memorial garden at Roden Street in the Village area, honouring the ‘fallen comrades’ of the UFF’s ‘South Belfast Brigade’.
The UFF memorial in south Belfast’s Roden Street
The UFF was a cover name used by the UDA in sectarian murders until the UDA was outlawed in 1992.
The UDA memorial in Dee Street, east Belfast
Another enclosed UDA memorial for the group’s ‘East Belfast Brigade’ is located at Dee Street.
A council spokesperson told the Irish News that under existing legislation, it is understood both of these memorials, and others would be immune from planning enforcement, as they have been in place longer than five years.
In west Belfast’s St James Crescent area, a large walled memorial garden includes a ‘Roll of Honour’ for IRA members.
An IRA memorial in the St James Crescent/Donegall Road area
The council said planning permission for a ‘community garden’ had been granted for this site, adding: “No assessment of the site has been undertaken to ascertain whether the memorial garden is in accordance with the permission granted.”
Meanwhile, last November the BBC reported how almost 200 murals and memorials – explicitly for paramilitary groups – were located on Housing Executive land across the north, out of more than 400 memorials.
Over 300 of these were regarded as either ‘loyalist’ or ‘republican’, with the remainder ‘unaligned’ or unspecified.
A Housing Executive spokesperson told the Irish News on Friday: “We are – and will continue to be – proactive in removing structures, emblems or signs, where possible.
“Our response is based on collaboration with the local community and partner organisations, with the safety of our staff and contractors a priority consideration.
“In the last five years, alongside community groups, we have delivered 57 different reimaging projects right across Northern Ireland, the majority of which resulted in the removal or prevention of a memorial or mural which would have undermined positive community relations.
“We have also been proactive in removing hate signage and graffiti from our buildings and estates.
“We support local communities in the removal of sectional symbols including murals, memorials and territorial displays – this is core to our daily work and how we provide services.
“This approach is consistent across our communities – if we are asked to act by the community or their representatives, we will.”
The spokesperson added: “We will continue to work with other partners as issues around expressions of cultural identity and sense of place, which manifest themselves in murals, monuments and flags, cannot be addressed by a single agency.”