By Eamon Sweeney
None of the elected Unionist representatives on Mid Ulster District Council attended a visit to south Derry last week by Irish President, Michael D Higgins, it has emerged.
The President visited the Seamus Heaney Homeplace on May 27 with his wife at an event that was attended by the widow of the deceased Nobel Literature prizewinner and other members of his family.
However, Mid Ulster Council have confirmed that whilst all of the political representatives on the local authority were invited, no one from the unionist bloc attended.
The inivitation to President Higgins and his wife Sabrina, who were personal friends of the world renowned poet, had been extended around two years ago by a Sinn Fein representative.
Sinn Fein Councillor Cathal Mallaghan, a former Chair of Mid Ulster District Council, extended the invitation to the President at an event at the Royal Irish Academy in May, 2016.
“He had made arrangements to visit Homeplace at an earlier time but Presidential duties meant that had to be postponed,” he said.
There are seven DUP and seven UUP Councillors currently sitting on Mid Ulster Council, including Councillor Kim Ashton, DUP Chair of the Council and UUP Councillor Mark Glasgow who is currently Vice Chair.
However, Unionists on the Council have denied that their non-attendance was a deliberate snub.
In a statement, Councillor Kim Ashton said: “From the start of my term of office, I undertook only to attend church services or remembrance services on Sundays to ensure I had one day most weeks to spend time with my family.
“I have honoured that commitment since June last year. As the date of this visit could not be changed and as I was already attending a Festival of Praise organised by the Dungannon Area Churches Forum on the same day, I was not able to attend Homeplace on this occasion.
“This was outlined to the President’s office from the outset which he respected.”
The statement came after SDLP Councillor Malachy Quinn described the non attendance of the Council’s Unionist contingent at the Bellaghy event as “pure bigotry.”
Councillor Quinn said he was “disgusted” and that to him “this was nothing more than a snub to the Irish Head of State and falls below the standards that Mid Ulster expects of its elected representatives.
“Last year we had Prince Charles visit the Heaney centre and both the SDLP, who held the Vice-Chair position at the time, and Sinn Fein turned up to meet and greet him and his wife Camilla.
“It’s nothing short of a disgrace that not only did our DUP chair and UUP vice chair not attend this event. There was no representation from either party.
“If this had been any other Head of State I have no doubt that Unionist councillors would have been lining up for photographs, so the only reasonable explanation for this sunb was pure bigotry.”
Council Chair Kim Ashton continued: “It’s unfortunate that Councillor Quinn cannot show the same respect to Unionists. I made it clear to the Chief Executive that council representatives should be in attendance if they were willing to attend on a Sunday and that Councillor (Dominic) Molloy (Sinn Fein) agreed to be the Councils representative on this occasion, which he has done on a number of occasions during my year when I have been unable to attend an event.
“It should also be noted that no Unionist objected to this visit or hospitality being served.”
UUP Councillor Trevor Wilson also emphasised that there was no purposeful snub by his party.
“The Vice-Chair, Councillor Mark Glasgow was unable to attend due to work commitments. Others do not attend events on Sunday’s and the remainder had prior engagements due to the short notice of the visit.
“Unlike the SDLP, we certainly do not want to get into a slanging match over a visit to Northern Ireland by President Higgins. We hope he enjoyed his visit to the Heaney Centre.”
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