``Don't play RUC''- appeal to Donegal Celtic
Le Peadar Whelan
Sinn Fein's Gerard O'Neill has called on West Belfast soccer
team, Donegal Celtic not to play against the RUC in the
semi-final of the Steel and Son's Cup, set for 14 November.
Adding his voice to appeals for the club to pull out of the
fixture, Mark Thompson of the Relatives for Justice group said,
if Donegal Celtic play the RUC it will be, ``a terrible decision,
given the RUC's appalling record of human rights abuse.
``I can understand people involved in soccer wanting to play this
match for sporting reasons but this is not just a' football
match'. The RUC will use this game as a marker to say they are
becoming more acceptable to the nationalist community.
``The RUC haven't apologised for what they done to this community
over the years, they have colluded with loyalists, killed people
in this community with plastic bullets and disfigured hundreds of
others. I really think this game should be abandoned'', concluded
Thompson.
Speaking to AP/RN councillor O'Neill, who represents Lenadoon
where the club is based, said: ``Sinn Fein met with club officials
on Tuesday night and the club's committee have deferred their
decision about playing the match until a meeting on Thursday when
they want us to address the players. However we believe that the
decision is one for the committee to make and they should accept
that responsibility and not leave it up to the players''.
This is the second time in as many years West Belfast soccer
team, Donegal Celtic, finds itself at the centre of controversy
over a game against the RUC.
In November 1996 the pair were drawn against each other in the
Irish Cup. Donegal Celtic withdrew and claimed they were victims
of threats, but speaking to AP/RN Una Gillespie who represented
the area for Sinn Fein at that time categorically denied that the
club or any of it's members were threatened.
She said: ``Local people who have suffered at the hands of the RUC
did not want that game to go ahead and be used to legitimise the
same people who were responsible for the murder of Julie
Livingstone, from nearby, who was shot dead by the RUC, but no
one was threatened''.
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