AN SDLP COUNCILLOR has hit out at the “orchestrated and organised campaign of hate” against a proposed Gaelscoil in East Belfast.
It comes after a banner objecting to the proposed Irish language primary school was placed at its planned site on the Montgomery Road.
The banner, which has since been removed, read: “Relocate Irish school to where it is needed. Relocate Irish school to where it is wanted.”
Scoil na Seolta currently runs a naíscoil from a church hall and has had planning permission agreed to open a temporary bunscoil and naíscoil on the Montgomery Road site from next year.
The plan is to operate on the site for a period of five years before moving to a permanent location.
“During the planning process, the school had letters of support from a number of elected representatives, including myself and other members of the community,” said SDLP councillor Séamas de Faoite.
He noted that there were only two planning objections, one of which came from DUP MLA Joanne Bunting.
Speaking to The Journal about the banner, de Faoite said: “People who are setting out to intimidate the school and intimidate children from receiving an education really have to take a long, hard look at themselves.
“It is, frankly, weird to have such an obsession around a school in this way and to lead a hate campaign against it.”
The SDLP councillor added that he was “concerned about what kind of message that sends about East Belfast as a whole”.
He said it also poses “child safeguarding risks that a school is receiving this amount of very focused and negative attention by a small number of individuals”.
In September, Northern Ireland’s Education Minister, DUP MLA Paul Given, met with the Loyalist Communities Council (LCC), who raised their objections to school.
The LCC includes representatives from paramilitary groups the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) and the Ulster Defence Association (UDA).
After the meeting, the LCC said it “advised the minister that the proposal to build an Irish language school in the mainly unionist area of east Belfast should be stopped” and that it had “no meaningful support from the local unionist and loyalist population.”
When asked about this, Givan said: “Nobody will ever exercise a veto of decisions I will take as education minister.”
De Faoilte told The Journal: “For a southern context, it would be like Education Minister Norma Foley meeting somebody from the Hutch gang about a school in inner city North Dublin.
“It is incredible and I think politicians have to think really carefully about who they’re engaging with in relation to these issues.”
He added: “We have to be very careful about platforming these types of views and adding to any of the hate campaigns that are going on against the school.
“There may be ways to engage legitimately with residents, but when you’re getting into the territory of organisations that represent armed and criminal paramilitary gangs, then this becomes a real safeguarding issue.”
De Faoite has reported the banner to the PSNI as a hate crime and noted that the incident happened close to Castlereagh police station.
“So I would imagine there will be a lot of camera coverage of the area,” said de Faoite.
“That being said, we have a long-standing issue in terms of securing prosecution around hate crimes in Belfast at the moment.
“I would be concerned about us being able to secure a prosecution or a successful investigation in this case.
“However, I think it is very important to make sure that every incident is recorded appropriately by the police to build a very accurate picture of what’s happening in terms of an orchestrated and organised campaign of hate against wee kids going to school.”
In a statement to The Journal, the PSNI confirmed it had received a report that a banner had been erected in the Montgomery Road area of East Belfast yesterday.
“The banner had been removed prior to police attendance,” said a spokesperson, who added that the “matter is being treated as a sectarian hate incident”.
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