DERRY’S council is call on all local educational facilities to refuse ‘British Armed Forces’ access to their pupils following a decision taken at a recent meeting.
The move came at the monthly meeting of Derry City and Strabane District Council held in the Guildhall on Thursday afternoon.
At the meeting, the independent councillor Gary Donnelly tabled a motion which stated: “Given the history of British imperialism in Ireland, this Council calls on local educational facilities for children and young people to refuse British Armed Forces access to children/pupils as part of their attempt to glamourise/recruit for their imperialist ventures.”
Cllr Donnelly added that he was putting the motion forward following the ‘recent spectacle’ of the British Army setting up recruiting desks at schools in the north, adding that he felt strongly about this issue given that he had lost a classmate who was just aged 11 years of age who died after being shot by a plastic bullet from close range.
He continued that despite and that soldiers having to be age 18 before they can be deployed to the front line, 15 teenagers under the age of had been deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan between 2003 and 2005.
Cllr Donnelly described the practice of armies entering schools as ‘conscription by the back door’ before continuing that those involved in the recruitment often target young people who are socially disadvantaged.
The independent councillor Darren O’Reilly said he had concerns over young people aged 15 or 16 being asked to joined an armed force, and that more money should be used to create more apprenticeships.
Sinn Fein’s Paul Fleming said his party would be supporting the motion, while the independent councillor Paul Gallagher said that the council must ‘stop our children from becoming potential killers’.
Commenting, the SDLP’s John Boyle said that while it was ‘concerning and worrying’ to see any young person take up a career in the army, it was ‘an issue about freedom of choice’.
He continued that while the SDLP ‘understands where Councillor Donnelly is coming from’ it was not the business of council, but the Board of Governors, parents and teachers to decide ‘how they go about the business of educating our young people’.
His comments were echoed by the DUP’s Drew Thompson who said it was the responsibility of the schools and colleges concerned to ‘put forward proper educational situations’, before adding that it was ‘wrong’ of council to ‘stop these people going into offer jobs to young people’.
Alderman Thompson also accused Cllr Donnelly of failing to condemn the ‘armed gangs’ responsible for attacks on young people which has resulted in them losing limbs.
The UUP’s Derek Hussey meanwhile said that there is memorial board at the school he used to teach in featuring the names of young people he had taught, adding that ‘it wasn’t British Imperialism that killed them, but Irish republicanism’.
Commenting, the independent councillor Paul Gallagher said that he was ‘shocked’ at the SDLP, given that the British Army were going into ‘working class areas’ where unemployment was rife and prospects low, before ‘luring’ young people in to become ‘potential killers’.
He added that after being sent to ‘foreign lands to bomb villages’, many of the young people would be returned to civilian life with problems such as alcoholism.
The DUP’s David Ramsey said that Cllr Gallagher was guilty of ‘hypocrisy’, adding to remove this ‘sort of employment opportunity is ridiculous’.
“There are about 20 different things you can do (in the army), it’s not just about lifting a rifle and shooting people,” he said, before adding that he knew many people who had made a ‘good career’ in the armed forces.
Cllr Donnelly’s motion was then put to a recorded vote, which was passed with a majority of 20 votes to nine.
All members of the SDLP present abstained from the vote.
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