Opinion

Letter: Removal of Niall Ó Donnghaile portrait from City Hall is grossly unfair

If portrait is not restored, past actions of all former Belfast lord mayors should also be assessed

The empty space on the wall of Belfast City Hall, where the lord mayoral portrait of Niall O Donnghaile had hung
The empty space on the wall of Belfast City Hall where the lord mayoral portrait of Niall Ó Donnghaile had hung (Liam McBurney/PA)
By Letters to the Editor

On the basis of the information in the public domain, the removal of the portrait of former Belfast lord mayor Niall Ó Donnghaile from its place in Belfast City Hall is grossly unfair.

The portrait should be returned to its place immediately.

Senator Niall Ó Donnghaile
Former Belfast lord mayor Niall Ó Donnghaile

Failing its return, the past actions of all former Belfast lord mayors must now be assessed according to agreed and transparent criteria and standards. Those former lord mayors found to have acted ‘inappropriately’ on the basis of these agreed and transparent criteria and standards should, according to the precedent created by the treatment of Mr Ó Donnghaile, have their portraits removed from Belfast City Hall.

I would suggest that among the criteria and standards against which the actions and statements of all former Belfast lord mayors should be judged would be the promotion of sectarianism, racism, misogyny and homophobia.

Fergus O’Hare, Former Belfast City Councillor

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