SF object to freedom of Drogheda for Seamus Mallon
The party’s councillors unsuccessfully opposed a proposal, backed by all other local councillors, to award Mr Mallon, aged 81, the status of freeman of Drogheda. The decision was taken at a meeting of Drogheda Borough District Council earlier this week, the Irish Times reported.
“We have a TD for Louth,” said Sinn Fein councillor Kenneth Flood, who said Mr Adams would be “a better candidate than Seamus Mallon”.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdA Sinn Fein spokesman said: “Sinn Fein councillors in Louth voted against the freedom of Drogheda for Seamus Mallon as they felt it was wrong to elevate one person who was involved in the peace process above all the others who were also important to ensuring a lasting peace in Ireland.”
But Drogehda-based Labour Senator Ged Nash claimed Sinn Fein’s “effort to rewrite history and airbrush the SDLP out of the narrative continues”.
He added: “This approach is designed to shoehorn themselves and the Provisional IRA into the civil rights narrative and to completely airbrush the SDLP and the honourable tradition of constitutional nationalism out of our recent political history.”
He said Mr Mallon is the 34th recipient, but this is first time councillors have split on a nomination.