News

Call for Union flag to be removed from church

The Union flag outside a Catholic church in Dervock
The Union flag outside a Catholic church in Dervock The Union flag outside a Catholic church in Dervock

A NORTH Antrim DUP councillor has called for a controversial Union flag hoisted in the grounds of a Catholic church to be removed.

Causeway Coast and Glens representative John Finlay had previously described the erection of the flag at Our Lady and St John the Evangelist Church in Dervock as inappropriate but stopped short of calling for it to be removed.

However, last night he said the flag should be taken down from an electricity pole in the grounds of the tiny church on the outskirts of the village which has strong UDA connections.

A similar flag put up last year was described by the PSNI as a "hate crime".

Mr Finlay said he was "fully committed to the great Protestant principles of civil and religious liberty, freedom of conscience and mutual respect".

"On the basis of those same principles, I am saddened when I see some within my own community misusing our national flag in a way that is deliberately designed to offend or annoy," he said.

"However, I feel it is both inappropriate and insensitive to enter the grounds of the Roman Catholic Church in Dervock for the purpose of erecting a Union Flag. In the interests of common decency and good community relations, and out of respect for the flag itself, I call on those who placed it there to take it down without delay."

A spokeswoman for the PSNI said "a complaint has not yet been received".

Independent councillor Padraig McShane is critical of the police response.

"Councillor Finlay's comments remain in stark contrast to the actions, or lack thereof of the PSNI who continue to give succour to the UDA by claiming no crime has been committed," he said.