Co Derry Mayor's Terrorist Past 'Flagged-up'

Legal action has been threatened as a Co Derry council chamber descends further into disarray.

The DUP MP Gregory Campbell has already criticised the mayoral election of Sean McGlinchey, who spent 18 years in jail for his part in an IRA bomb attack that killed six people in nearby Coleraine in 1973.

Last month he said: "There has been outrage throughout the borough of Limavady", and now, a flag incident on Tuesday night has further inflamed the situation.

Speaking on BBC Radio Ulster this morning, Sean McGlinchey, the Sinn Fein Mayor of Limavady indicated he was taking legal advice after TUV man, Boyd Douglas placed the union flag on his desk and Sean McGlinchey suspended proceedings in the chamber.

The council, which has a 'no flags' policy, passed a motion to have it removed after Mr Douglas said the row had to be seen in the context of the mayor's IRA past.

Mr Douglas also said that he did not understand why anyone would be offended by the Union flag: "It's the flag of the country," he said.

"Sinn Fein are talking about moving on and they only want to move on under a Sinn Fein agenda."

Commenting, Mr McGlinchey said that relations within the chamber had been poor for several years.

"We're all elected to work for the borough and I think, at this time, we need everybody working together rather than people pulling silly pranks for their own self-esteem," he added.

Councillor McGlinchey said that the TUV have no respect for democracy: "I had to suspend [the] meeting after Councillor Boyd Douglas refused to remove a Union flag that he brought into the chamber after a majority of councillors voted that he do so and I will be taking legal advice so that he cannot continue to disrupt Council meetings

"It is obvious that Boyd Douglas has no respect for either democracy or the flag that he gives his allegiance to as he used it in a provocative way to disrupt the meeting of Limavady Council.

"The TUV continually lecture others on the principles of democracy yet when it comes to putting them into practice they fail miserably but as Chairperson I intend to continue to work for all the citizens in the district and the name calling from Mr Douglas will not deter me in the slightest."

Today, in a live radio interview he refused to apologise for his IRA bombing role - indicating that this "had been tacked previously" - and suggested he was in the process of taking legal action against Mr Douglas, despite it being pointed out that this was more likely than not to further inflame the already tense situation.

The Sinn Fein Mayor also claimed that the council would be more effectively run by unelected officials because of the poor relations within the chamber.

Just last week, the Stormont Deputy First Minister, Martin McGuinness refused to reconsider the appointment of a convicted killer as a Stormont adviser to one of his Sinn Fein Executive colleagues.

See: No U-turn On Killer's Role: McGuinness

(BMcC/GK)