{"id":21870,"date":"2026-04-25T13:33:22","date_gmt":"2026-04-25T13:33:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/21870\/"},"modified":"2026-04-25T13:33:22","modified_gmt":"2026-04-25T13:33:22","slug":"unionist-areas-will-feel-it-the-most-if-planners-move-against-paramilitary-memorials-after-bobby-sands-statue-row-the-irish-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/21870\/","title":{"rendered":"Unionist areas \u2018will feel it the most\u2019 if planners move against paramilitary memorials after Bobby Sands statue row \u2013 The Irish News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Unionist parts of Belfast will \u201cfeel it the most\u201d if there is any planning enforcement against paramilitary memorials built without permission, it was warned on Friday.<\/p>\n

Sinn F\u00e9in made the claim as the row over a Bobby Sands statue in west Belfast sparked a threat of legal action.<\/p>\n

There are believed to be hundreds of paramilitary memorials across Belfast, many or most of which do not have planning permission.<\/p>\n

Sinn F\u00e9in 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.<\/p>\n

\"‘Most<\/a>\"Travel<\/a><\/p>\n

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<\/a> in the nationalist Twinbrook area where he grew up.<\/p>\n

The statue was erected without planning permission on Housing Executive-owned land last May<\/a>, but earlier this month the council had said it would take no further action<\/a> against it following a probe.<\/p>\n

That decision was overturned following Thursday\u2019s vote, with DUP motion proposer, Councillor Dean McCullough, saying the determination not to take enforcement action \u201cstrikes at the very heart of public confidence in this council\u201d.<\/p>\n

The council told The Irish News it does not have a figure for the number of illegally erected paramilitary memorials in the city.<\/p>\n

Sinn F\u00e9in party group leader on Belfast City Council Ciaran Beattie referred to loyalist memorials at Wednesday\u2019s meeting, stating that in the Shankill area, \u201cevery street corner has a mural or a plaque, and none of them have planning permission\u201d.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Speaking on Friday to the Irish News, Councillor Beattie said his party was considering legal action as the response to memorials \u201cmust be equal across the board\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe DUP proposal was a nonsense, and it\u2019s a stupid strategy by them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cHowever, we believe this still needs to be dealt with in a sensitive manner, as it\u2019s about people remembering their dead.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"BobbyBobby Sands statue in Twinbrook. PICTURE: MAL MCCANN <\/p>\n

Secretary of the Bobby Sands Trust, former Sinn F\u00e9in publicity director Danny Morrison said on Friday of unionist councillors \u201cthe hypocrisy is stunning\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnionists had no problem with illegal monuments, plaques, murals and memorial gardens in largely working class loyalist areas,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Mr Morrison added: \u201cWe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Among the loyalist memorials in the city is a large memorial garden at Roden Street in the Village area, honouring the \u2018fallen comrades\u2019 of the UFF\u2019s \u2018South Belfast Brigade\u2019.<\/p>\n

\"AThe UFF memorial in south Belfast’s Roden Street <\/p>\n

The UFF was a cover name used by the UDA in sectarian murders until the UDA was outlawed in 1992.<\/p>\n

\"AThe UDA memorial in Dee Street, east Belfast <\/p>\n

Another enclosed UDA memorial for the group\u2019s \u2018East Belfast Brigade\u2019 is located at Dee Street.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

In west Belfast\u2019s St James Crescent area, a large walled memorial garden includes a \u2018Roll of Honour\u2019 for IRA members. <\/p>\n

\"AAn IRA memorial in the St James Crescent\/Donegall Road area <\/p>\n

The council said planning permission for a \u2018community garden\u2019 had been granted for this site, adding: \u201cNo assessment of the site has been undertaken to ascertain whether the memorial garden is in accordance with the permission granted.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, last November the BBC reported how almost 200 murals and memorials \u2013 explicitly for paramilitary groups \u2013 were located on Housing Executive land across the north, out of more than 400 memorials.<\/p>\n

Over 300 of these were regarded as either \u2018loyalist\u2019 or \u2018republican\u2019, with the remainder \u2018unaligned\u2019 or unspecified.<\/p>\n

A Housing Executive spokesperson told the Irish News on Friday: \u201cWe are \u2013 and will continue to be \u2013 proactive in removing structures, emblems or signs, where possible.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur response is based on collaboration with the local community and partner organisations, with the safety of our staff and contractors a priority consideration.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn 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. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe have also been proactive in removing hate signage and graffiti from our buildings and estates.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe support local communities in the removal of sectional symbols including murals, memorials and territorial displays \u2013 this is core to our daily work and how we provide services. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis approach is consistent across our communities \u2013 if we are asked to act by the community or their representatives, we will.”<\/p>\n

The spokesperson added: \u201cWe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Unionist parts of Belfast will \u201cfeel it the most\u201d if there is any planning enforcement against paramilitary memorials…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":21871,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[9971,9973,9972,9982,9984,14,9049,9983,5,6],"class_list":["post-21870","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-uk","tag-belfast-city-council","tag-bobby-sands","tag-dup","tag-ira","tag-memorial","tag-politics","tag-sinn-fein","tag-uda","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116465605202892167","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21870","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21870"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21870\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21871"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21870"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21870"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21870"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}