Council wrong on grave monument

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Omagh District Council breached its own equality scheme by not acting over an unauthorised republican memorial, the Equality Commission has found.

The commission investigated a complaint about the memorial to IRA hunger strikers, on the Old Dromore Church grounds and graveyard in Dromore.

It said the political nature of the memorial, which included a tricolour, may mark the area as republican.

A resident of the village had complained about the monument.

The memorial also includes ten trees, one for each hunger striker.

The commission said the political nature of the memorial and its high level of visibility may mark the village as nationalist or republican and may not be conducive to good relations.

The investigation also raised issues concerning the proposed sale of the land by the council to Dromore Memorial Committee.

The council has now decided that the proposal for sale should be subject to an equality impact assessment.

Bob Collins, Chief Commissioner of the Equality Commission said the council's actions "had very clear equality implications".

'Remove monument'

"The purpose of the Equality Schemes, which all public bodies are required to adopt, is to ensure that the equality implications of any policy are fully considered," he said.

DUP councillor Thomas Buchanan, who objected to the memorial said the council had "ran roughshod" over the feelings of unionists.

"Omagh District Council should now take action and have this memorial removed from land that belongs to them," he said.

The council's chairman, Sean Begley of Sinn Fein, said the council had conducted itself in a proper way.

"The council got legal advice and did an investigation into who erected the memorial," he said.

He said that at that time the council did not have a policy on disposing of land in graveyards for memorials and agreed to a screening exercise and an equality impact assessment.

He said that before that could begin the complaint was made and the commission started its investigation.