By Joe McCann
THE most hardline Unionist party in Ards and North Down Council wants to spend thousands of pounds to celebrate a republican independence movement from Great Britain – the 250th anniversary of American independence.
The motion has been put forward by DUP councillor Carl McClean who called for a ‘rootin’, tootin’ celebration of American independence from Britain.
Mr McClean said the motion was to celebrate ‘the esteem in which Northern Ireland is held by the several successive United States administrations and the American people more broadly’.
Mr McClean said the Ulster-Scots story had not yet been fully told and said Ulster-Scots people were some of the prime founders of the American republic and were at the very heart of the American story.
He proposed the council team up with other councils around Northern Ireland who are holding similar events and for them to work together to put on a big event to celebrate the occasion.
“I think we ought to set our aim high on this and complement the other three councils that are actively working together to join their working groups. An event which won’t come around for another 250 years. Members, I won’t resolve from the question of money.”
“I can’t get away from the fact that to put on an event of the size and scale that I think is appropriate, and would compliment the other events currently being planned by the other councils, will require significant financial contribution. This is an extraordinary one-off event.
“This is not how we would necessarily conduct business and spend in the normal line of events, but this is exceptional and one- off and it should be marked appropriately. We are plainly hoping to attract and engage with the United States Administration in this.”
Seconding the motion, DUP councillor Jennifer Gilmour said the recent wins from Rory McIlroy at the Masters would help put the borough on the map.
Deputy Mayor Vicky Moore said the celebration for the event should also be tempered with an examination of what society was like then and should reflect for example, how the overwhelming majority of the signers of the Declaration of Independence were slave owners.
UUP alderman Philip Smith called the motion a ‘timely and a very worthwhile proposal’ and said if there were no Ulster Scots there would be no United States. He also said: “The Declar- ation of Independence was signed by many people from Northern Ireland. It was printed by a man from Northern Ireland and the seal was designed by somebody from Northern Ireland.” Northern Ireland however, wasn’t established until 145 years later.
DUP alderman Stephen McIlveen spoke of the borough’s links to America, including figures such as Viscount Castlereagh who helped negotiate the boundary between the USA and Canada.
Explaining the irony of a unionist party celebrating a repub- lican independence movement from Britain, Mr McClean said: “Sometimes people wonder why a unionist, why a glad subject of His Majesty would be pleased about a country that’s just up and left us and cleared off and done their own thing. But a closer reading of the history shows that the Americans at the time did not see themselves as Americans, they were English subjects and they wanted the rights that they had been guaranteed under Magna Carta, the Petition of Rights and the Bill of Rights as late as 1689.
“It was a failure of the British Parliament and King George not to assert those rights that caused the rift that they had, but they very much saw themselves as operating in that line.”
The motion was approved by the committee and must now be ratified by the full council.
