Republican News · Thursday 21 February 2002

Progress on symbols at Fermanagh District Council

Sinn Féin has forced Fermanagh District Council to examine its record on equality. At its monthly meeting on 18 February, the Council agreed to set up an Equality Impact Committee to report back in April.

At Monday's meeting, Sinn Féin councillor Brain McCaffrey proposed that all royal and British military displays be removed immediately from Fermanagh District council premises in favour of a mutually acceptable, neutral working environment.

The SDLP failed to support the motion, proposing, instead, an amendment calling for the establishment of the Equality Impact Committee.

"After initial debate in the council it was clear the Sinn Féin motion would not be accepted," said McCaffrey, "so we in Sinn Féin decided to support the SDLP amendment, which was accepted unanimously.

"Ironically, all the unionists - including the one DUP councillor on the council, voted for the amended motion and so accepted that a neutral working environment didn't exist for employees of Fermanagh District Council," said McCaffrey.

He added that Sinn Féin had proposed the original motion in a genuine attempt to create a neutral working environment on council property. The party had received a number of complaints about the British military and royal emblems on council property, which includes a plaque honouring the British Parachute regiment. The plaque was installed in Enniskillen Library during the 1970s, when the Paras were stationed in the county in one of their first tours of duty in the North.

The new Equality subcommittee will include five Sinn Féin councillors, three UUP members, two SDLP members and one DUP councillor. The chair, Sinn Féin's Robin Martin and vice-chair of the council will also sit on the sub-committee.

"The sub-committee will bring us to the same position that the Sinn Féin motion would have; it will just take longer," a confident McCaffrey told An Phoblacht.

"This is the first time that unionists have admitted there is a problem in Fermanagh District Council chamber and the town hall and that there is a need to create a mutually acceptable environment."