Unionist hypocrisy elects Belfast mayor
BY LAURA FRIEL
Sinn Fein is ``incapable of representing all the people'' of
Belfast city but Sammy Wilson of the DUP can? The Sammy Wilson
who as Belfast Mayor in 1986 was caught wearing his chain of
office at an Ulster Resistance rally at the Ulster Hall?
The same DUP councillor who proposed a resolution congratulating
the UDA death squad who assassinated Sinn Féin Councillor Eddie
Fullerton in 1991? Who described Sinn Féin voters as ``sub human
animals'' and once declared ``Taigs aren't ratepayers''?
The Ulster Unionists Party's decision to thwart Sinn Féin's hopes
of electing their longest-serving city councillor, Alex Maskey,
as mayor last week in favour of the DUP's Sammy Wilson was not
simply an act of bare-faced hypocrisy, it was also blatantly
sectarian.
The Ulster Unionist Party justified their vote by saying that
Sinn Féin does not attract cross community support and is
incapable of representing all the people of the city. Their
comments sounded all the more hollow following the exemplary
record of Sinn Féin's Marie Moore, who served as deputy mayor
last year.
The Ulster Unionist Party also nominated a member of the loyalist
Ulster Democratic Party, which is linked to the UDA, Frank
McCoubrey, as deputy mayor. The UDA is currently engaged in a
bloody feud with the UVF, the latest victim of which, Martin
Taylor, was buried less than a week before the City Hall vote.
But this is not the first time the UUP have been involved in a
sectarian head count at the City Hall. In 1994, Hugh Smyth of the
Progressive Unionist Party, a party linked to the loyalist UVF,
was elected as Belfast mayor with the support of the Ulster
Unionist Party.
At the time of Smyth's election, the UVF were not on ceasefire
and in 1994 they were engaged in a brutal sectarian killing
campaign in which 25 people died and many more injured, almost
all in random sectarian attacks.
The attacks included the brutal slaying of Margaret Wright, who
was battered and shot to death in a loyalist drinking den in the
mistaken belief she was a Catholic. Pensioner Roseanne Mallon,
shot repeatedly in the back as she watched television in a
relative's house in Tyrone. Two Catholic students, Gavin McShane
and Shane McArdle, both 17 years of age were shot dead, six
Catholic football fans were gunned down as they watched a match
at a pub in Loughinisland, County Down and pregnant mother of
five Kathleen O Hagan was killed in Tyrone.
The unionist benches at City Hall were packed to capacity for
Thursday night's mayoral vote. UUP Assembly members Michael
McGimpsey and Reg Empey, who also hold seats on Belfast City
Council, rushed from meetings at Stormont to cast their votes for
the anti-Agreement DUP and loyalist UDP candidates.
The bitter differences between the loyalist political groupings
the PUP and UDP, fuelled by the current bloody feud being waged
between the UVF and UDA, were momentarily suspended as PUP
councillors voted in support of the UDP candidate for deputy
mayor.
But it was still close. By a margin of 26 to 24, in a recorded
vote, DUP councillor Sammy Wilson was elected mayor and UDP
councillor Frank McCoubrey deputy mayor. The irony of Sammy
Wilson, a bitter opponent of the new Assembly, securing the post
courtesy of the pro-Agreement councillors of the UUP and PUP was
lost in the rush to deny Sinn Féin the position.
Maskey's mayoral bid was further undermined by the absence
through ill health of SDLP councillor Carmel Hanna and dissident
Alliance councillor Danny Dow's defection following his party's
decision to back Sinn Féin.
Afterwards, Sinn Féin councillor Alex Maskey described himself as
``disappointed but not surprised''. Unionists had collapsed the
election of the city's mayor into a ``sectarian headcount,'' he
said, a view echoed by the SDLP and Alliance Party.
SDLP group leader Catherine Molloy labelled the election ``a night
of shame''. The unionists had used the hard arithmetic of this
election to take all the top positions for themselves, she said.
Alliance Party councillor David Alderdice described the position
of the UUP as ``sheer hypocrisy''. They are not prepared to support
Sinn Fein but they were prepared to vote for a candidate
associated with the UDA and UFF, he said.
1994 UVF killings. The year in which UUP councillors elected PUP
member Hugh Smyth as Belfast City mayor.
Cormac McDermott (31) Catholic electrician, 27 Jan
Mark Sweeney (31) Catholic taxi driver, 3 Feb
Francis Brown (38) Catholic, 11 March
Margaret Wright (31) mistaken for a Catholic, 6 April
Ian Hamilton (21) 12 April
James Browne (48) Catholic newsagent, 28 April
Roseanne Mallon (76) Catholic pensioner, 8 May
Eamon Fox (44) Catholic electrician, 17 May
Gary Convie (24) Catholic builder, 17 May
Gavin McShane (17) Catholic student 18 May
Shane McArdle (17) Catholic student 18 May
Martin Doherty (35) IRA Volunteer, 21 May
Maurice O Kane (50) Catholic shipyard worker, 9 June
Gerard Brady (27) Catholic taxi driver, 17 June
Cecil Dougherty (30) mistaken as Catholic, 17 June
William Corrigan (32) mistaken as Catholic, 10 July
Adrian Rogan (24) Catholic Loughinisland, 18 June
Daniel McCreanor (59) Catholic Loughinisland, 18 June
Eamon Byrne (39) Catholic Loughinisland, 18 June
Patrick O Hare (35) Catholic Loughinisland, 18 June
Barney Green (87) Catholic Loughinisland, 18 June
Malcolm Jenkinson (53) Catholic Loughinisland, 18 June
David Thompson (48) Protestant, 5 August
Kathleen O Hagan (38) Catholic, 7 August
Sean MacDermot (37) Catholic builder, 31 Aug
Sammy Wilson's sectarian soundbites
``Irish is a leprechaun language.'' Irish News, 3 Nov 1987
``Leadbelly.'' Sunday World 17 January 1988. A comment about fellow
Belfast councillor Alex Maskey after he was shot in the stomach
by a loyalist death squad
``Our message to the perverts who voted for them [Sinn Féin] is
that they will not get anything through this council.''
Andersonstown News 5 March 1988
``I have no regret that someone openly identified with terrorist
organisations and activities meets his death the same way.''Irish
Times 24 Sept 1988 after the loyalist killing of Gerard Slane.
``The GAA is the sporting wing of the IRA,''Irish News 6 Sept 1989
``Would this council be prepared to congratulate all those who
have done a good job on two sides of the border.'' Sunday World 15
June 1991 reference to the loyalist murder of Sinn Féin Donegal
councillor Eddie Fullerton
``5,000 sub human animals.'' News Letter 3 Sept 1991 voters who
returned Joe Austin to City Hall
``They are poofs. I don't care if they are ratepayers. As far as I
am concerned they are perverts.'' Daily Express 1 June 1992 after
gay rights activists had requested the use of City Hall
``Taigs don't pay rates.'' Irish Times 12 January 2000
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