Belfast City Council vote over Bobby Sands statue sparks political row

By Jonathan McCambridge, Press Association

A vote by Belfast City councillors to reconsider a decision to allow a statue of IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands in west Belfast to remain in place, despite not having planning permission, has sparked a political row.

The Bobby Sands Trust accused unionists of “hypocrisy” following the vote on Thursday night.

The statue was unveiled last year at the Republican Memorial Garden in Twinbrook, west Belfast, marking the 44th anniversary of the former MP’s death.

It later emerged that it had been erected without planning permission, though the council has not previously taken any action.

At the meeting on Thursday, a DUP motion which called for the matter to be “reconsidered”, was passed.

A Sinn Féin amendment seeking a review of the “current enforcement status of all such structures” across the council area was unsuccessful.

Sands died during the 1981 hunger strike, aged 27, less than a month after he had been elected as MP for Fermanagh and South Tyrone.

Danny Morrison, secretary of the Bobby Sands Trust and a former director of publicity for Sinn Féin, released a statement which criticised the SDLP for abstaining during the vote.

The statement said: “There is no cost to the ratepayers of Belfast for this statue, a statue supported by local people who came out in their thousands for its unveiling.

“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.

“The hypocrisy is astonishing.

“Unionists had no problem with illegal monuments, plaques, murals and memorial gardens in largely working class loyalist areas.”

DUP councillor Dean McCullough said the motion introduced at council was concerned about “equality”.

He said: “The public want to know that the same rules apply to everyone.”

Sinn Féin Councillor Ciaran Beattie said the motion was an “attack on the rights of republicans to remember their dead”.

He said: “Memorials and sites of remembrance across Belfast hold deep emotional and historical significance.

“Approaches to enforcement must therefore be proportionate, sensitive, and rooted in respect.

“Priority should be given to engagement, dialogue, and community-led solutions, particularly where structures serve a commemorative purpose and pose no safety risk.”

Seven IRA prisoners and three from the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) died during the 1981 Maze Prison hunger strike.

First Minister Michelle O’Neill and former Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams were among those who attended the unveiling of the statue last year.