St. Patrick festivities attacked
BY CAITLIN DOHERTY
Outrage has been expressed after two SDLP councillors voted to force Belfast's Saint Patrick's Day Carnival organisers back into a costly battle.
Caitriona Ruane, who heads the Carnival, has personally appealed to John Hume to intervene in the matter before thousands of pounds of taxpayers' money is wasted in the council's legal challenge against the children's carnival.
This latest crisis for the carnival came when SDLP councillors Alex Attwood and Alasdair McDonnell voted with unionists and loyalists in favour of appealing a court judgment awarding legal costs of almost £40,000 against Belfast City Council in favour of the St. Patrick's Day Carnival Committee.
Caitriona Ruane says she can't understand such a volte face. ``The SDLP and John Hume have always been amongst our strongest supporters'', she said. ``It was bad enough when the unionists turned the carnival into a political football, but when two SDLP councillors vote against a children's carnival you have to ask yourself what is going on.''
In another serious reminder of the problems the Carnival has to deal with, a peace funding body has been backing its decision to fund a sectarian and bigoted report. The Belfast European Partnership board has defended the funding of the ``Celebrating Patrick'' report into unionist attitudes towards St. Patrick's Day, commissioned by the unionist St Patrick's Heritage Association. Its authors were granted £29,500- just £500 less than the amount awarded to the carnival committee to help stage the huge celebrations attended by thousands last year at the city hall.
The Association is known to be spearheaded by Ulster-Scots activist and unionist councillor Nelson McCausland, Belfast Mayor Sammy Wilson and DUP minister Nigel Dodds. All three have consistently attempted to prevent the St. Patrick's committee from bringing an inclusive festival to all the people of Belfast.
Several sections of the report have caused particular concern.
Two of the only five photographs printed depict Caitríona wearing a Celtic top and holding a white and green scarf. Such pictures were taken during the promotion of the ``Celtic Story'' play in Belfast last year and have nothing to do with the St. Patrick's festivities.
The faces of children gathered at the Victoria statue at the City Hall have been blanked out, suggesting that any person who attends the event should fear for their life. Not one of the so-called ``witnesses'' is identified or named and the questions of a ``survey of attitudes'' are totally leading. The lack of methodology and rigour is also striking. Other deeply disturbing comments are also made, such as a reference to the fact that Caitríona Ruane extended her sympathy to the family of murdered human rights champion Rosemary Nelson.
``Rosemary Nelson was killed two days before the parade. Of course we extended our condolences. What are they trying to say?'' asked Caitríona Ruane.
Many references are also made to bigoted letters published in the local media, but no mention is for example made of letters coming from unionists in favour of the festivities, nor the active support of many in the unionist community.
``This report is a display of anti-Irish sentiments. Its content and tone portray the views of a very narrow section of unionism,'' said Ruane.
``It is part of a campaign to make sure that no celebration of the Irish patron saint and national festivities takes place in Belfast. The message they are sending out is that anyone who raises their head above the parapet is wrong.''
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