Deputy mayor quits SDLP over Bobby Sands statue vote dispute

Belfast's deputy lord mayor Paul Doherty has quit the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) in a dispute over a council vote on a statue of IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands.

It follows a special council meeting on Thursday in which a Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) motion was passed, calling for a decision to close a planning enforcement probe to be "reconsidered".

SDLP councillors left the meeting before the vote.

Doherty said he was not at the meeting, but would have voted against the DUP motion.

The SDLP's leader Claire Hanna thanked Doherty for his service and said the party's councillors had faced "intimidation" following the debate.

Doherty will remain as an independent councillor.

The statue of Sands was erected last year on public land in the Twinbrook area of west Belfast without planning permission.

An enforcement investigation was carried out, but Belfast City Council officials had said it was "not considered expedient to take any further action".

In a post on Facebook on Saturday, Doherty said he had "left the SDLP with immediate effect".

"For clarity, I was not at the hastily arranged Belfast City Council meeting this week, contrary to some posts directed at me," he said.

"I was dealing with an emerging issue in the community and therefore did not have the opportunity to vote against the DUP motion - which I would have done."

The councillor added: "As someone from west Belfast, I know the Bobby Sands statue in Twinbrook holds real significance for people in our community and beyond.

"People should be fully entitled to remember him in this way, and I fully support that."

He also accused the DUP and others of "turning this into a political stunt".

Claire Hanna described Doherty as a "valued representative of the SDLP over many years" and offered him "every best wish for the future".

"The SDLP representatives on Belfast City Council collectively developed their position on the Bobby Sands statue," she said.

"Following the motion, our councillors were subjected to an unacceptable level of intimidation.

"While the party has sought to support Paul throughout this period, he has taken the decision to step down, and we respect his decision to put his family first."

The DUP motion was backed by 27 councillors, with 22 voting against and three abstentions. It received support from unionist parties and the Alliance Party.

Speaking at the Belfast City Hall meeting on Thursday, DUP councillor Dean McCullough said his party's motion was about "equality".

He said the decision to close the planning probe "strikes at the very heart of public confidence in this council".

Sinn Féin had tabled an unsuccessful amendment seeking a review of the "current enforcement status of all such structures" across the council area.

The party's councillor Ciaran Beattie argued that memorial sites with no planning permission were "predominantly in unionist areas".

Beattie added that "people should be allowed to remember their dead in a respectful way".

An amendment from the SDLP was also defeated.

It had called for Stormont executive ministers to "recommit" to proposals made by the Commission on Flags, Identity, Culture and Tradition.

SDLP councillor Séamas de Faoite said that "we're still stuck in a position where none of that appears to have moved forward".

On Friday, the Bobby Sands Trust had criticised the SDLP's handling of the council meeting.

The trust's secretary Danny Morrison, a former director of publicity for Sinn Féin, described the SDLP's actions as "cowardly and craven".

In a statement to the BBC's Nolan Show, he also said "the hypocrisy is astonishing" from unionist parties.

Sands died aged 27 during the 1981 hunger strike, in which 10 republican paramilitary prisoners starved themselves to death.

It was part of a protest in which they sought to be recognised as political prisoners during Northern Ireland's violent conflict known as the Troubles.

The statue of the former MP was unveiled beside an Irish republican memorial garden.

First Minister Michelle O'Neill and other Sinn Féin representatives were among those who attended on the day of the unveiling.

O'Neill last year described the statue as a "powerful tribute" and defended her attendance after facing criticism from the DUP.

The Northern Ireland Housing Executive (NIHE) later said the statue had been placed on its land "without our permission or knowledge".