{"id":55685,"date":"2025-09-10T18:10:19","date_gmt":"2025-09-10T18:10:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/55685\/"},"modified":"2025-09-10T18:10:19","modified_gmt":"2025-09-10T18:10:19","slug":"michelle-oneill-tells-gavin-robinson-to-butt-out-as-sinn-fein-dup-row-deepens-the-irish-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/55685\/","title":{"rendered":"Michelle O\u2019Neill tells Gavin Robinson to \u2018butt out\u2019 as Sinn Fein\/DUP row deepens \u2013 The Irish News"},"content":{"rendered":"

The First Minister has told the DUP leader Gavin Robinson<\/a> he should \u201cbutt out\u201d of an argument about a jobs fair in Derry<\/a> as the row betwen government parties deepens.<\/p>\n

Michelle O\u2019Neill<\/a> was responding after the British Army was told it could not have a stall at the event on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Taking place at the council-owned Foyle Arena, the fair had been organised by the Department for Communities. <\/p>\n

Following criticism from Sinn F\u00e9in and SDLP councillors, defence officials were told that Derry City and Strabane Council was unable to offer them a stand.<\/p>\n

\"Michelle<\/a><\/p>\n

The DUP\u2019s Communities Minister Gordon Lyons has said he is now taking legal advice over the decision.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday morning Mr Robinson said it was unfair for young people in the city to be denied the opportunity to learn about a career in the armed forces, and called on Ms O\u2019Neill to show she really was \u201cthe First Minister for all.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"DUPDUP leader Gavin Robinson called for unity from ministers (Liam McBurney\/PA) <\/p>\n

Speaking to the BBC, Ms O\u2019Neill said that Mr Robinson should respect the \u201cdemocratic process\u201d of the council, that it was \u201cinappropriate\u201d for the army to be invited and she would not \u201ctake lectures\u201d from him about the issue.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt may not have went the way the DUP would have liked, but they have to respect the outcome,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt sounds to me like the old days of DUP domination where they got to call the shots, this choice needs to be honoured.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a statement, the Sinn F\u00e9in MLA Ciara Ferguson said: \u201cDerry and Strabane Council are democratically entitled to make decisions that relates to council property and to reflect, in doing so, the deep hurt that the British Army inflicted on the people of Derry.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe DUP leader might want to believe that we have somehow reverted to the dark days of unionist domination but those days are gone and they are never coming back.<\/p>\n

\u201cMichelle O\u2019Neill has consistently shown she is and will continue to be a First Minister for All.\u201d<\/p>\n

The SDLP\u2019s Foyle MP Colum Eastwood also defended councillors opposing the army involvement, noting that Mr Robinson should show \u201cmore empathy\u201d with families in the city still affected by the events of Bloody Sunday in 1972. <\/p>\n

\u201cIn less than a week Soldier F will stand trial charged with the murder of James Wray and William McKinney and the attempted murder of five others,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was completely right in those circumstances, setting aside the clear security concerns and the risk that the event would be disrupted, that councillors raise their very serious objections.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last week, Sinn F\u00e9in councillor Christopher Jackson said his party \u201cfully opposed\u201d the army job stand, while the SDLP\u2019s Brian Tierney said \u201cample opportunities\u201d were available elsewhere and suggested it would have created a security risk.<\/p>\n

The Ulster Unionist councillor Derek Hussey described some of the criticism during a heated council debate last week as \u201csheer hatred and bigotry.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TheThe Ministry of Defence said they were no longer offered a stand at Tuesday’s job fair. (Jane Barlow\/PA) <\/p>\n

Mr Robinson called the decision to exclude that army a \u201cfailure of leadership\u201d within both the SDLP and Sinn F\u00e9in because of their \u201cprejudice.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re going to have to get over themselves on the aspirations of their neighbours…on the fact that there are other people in Northern Ireland that think differently from them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Referencing Michelle O\u2019Neill, he said \u201cthe First Minister for all needs to speak up and say her people got it wrong…they have created a hostile environment which is unwelcome in Northern Ireland.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cShe attends events with the Commander in Chief of the British Armed Forces and she gets plaudits for doing it, but it\u2019s meaningless if her councillors are acting in this way in Londonderry.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is intolerable and it is unsustainable that it\u2019s ok to sip champagne with the commander in chief of the armed forces, but to deny opportunities to the young people of Londonderry.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The First Minister has told the DUP leader Gavin Robinson he should \u201cbutt out\u201d of an argument about…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":55686,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[9,10,6441,955,40333,2915,13,14,40332,6,11,12,15,16,34866,5,47,7,8,65,66,67],"class_list":{"0":"post-55685","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-british-army","11":"tag-derry","12":"tag-derry-city-strabane-district-council","13":"tag-dup","14":"tag-featured-news","15":"tag-featurednews","16":"tag-gavin-robinson","17":"tag-headlines","18":"tag-latest-news","19":"tag-latestnews","20":"tag-main-news","21":"tag-mainnews","22":"tag-michelle-o-neill","23":"tag-news","24":"tag-sinn-fein","25":"tag-top-stories","26":"tag-topstories","27":"tag-world","28":"tag-world-news","29":"tag-worldnews"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55685","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55685"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55685\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55686"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55685"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55685"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55685"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}