Republican News · Thursday 22 November 2001

Castlewellan monument vandalised

Members of a notorious loyalist family from the South Down area were behind the destruction of a republican memorial in Castlewellan, local republicans told An Phoblacht.

The memorial, located in the Square in the County Down town was badly damaged in the sledgehammer attack on Saturday 17 November.

The Celtic Cross monument, in danger of collapsing, was removed by local republicans but they have vowed to rebuild it "at the earliest possible date".

The memorial was only erected this year. It commemorates republican dead from the area. Before it was built unionists, backed by the SDLP, tried to stop the work saying that because it was council land it couldn't be built without planning permission.

However, the local commemoration committee went ahead and built the memorial, saying that republicans in the area had the right to honour their dead in the same way as others.

This is the second time in a matter of months that a memorial to republicans in South Down has been desecrated. Loyalists are also thought to have wrecked the monument in Downpatrick, built at the spot were Volunteer Colum Marks, was shot dead by the RUC in 1991.

In a statement Sinn Féin assembly member, Mick Murphy, said it was a sad indication of the intolerance within our society and the result of unionism's attempt to demonise republicans.