Allister Challenges Executive over RUC Centenary
24 August 2012
TUV Leader Jim Allister has challenged the DUP/Sinn Fein Executive as to whether the 1921 centenary of the formation of the RUC will be included in the decade of commemorations which Stormont ministers are planning.
In a statement the TUV leader said:
“The next few years see many important anniversaries starting with the centenary of the Ulster Covenant this September. Being anxious to ensure the centenary of the RUC is included I tabled a direct question on the issue to DCAL. In a wholly evasive answer Minister Cullen avoided any mention of the Royal Ulster Constabulary, but contrived to refer to the Garda!
“The Culture Minister is supposed to be working in tandem with DETI Minister Arlene Foster on bringing forward a programme to commemorative anniversaries, so have they agreed to sidestep the RUC's formation?
“I have written to Minister Foster today asking for an assurance that the formation of the RUC George Cross will indeed be included in the programme. It's exclusion would be a scandalous insult, though, no doubt, such would suit the Sinn Fein agenda. The Executive must come clean on this important issue.”
Note to editors
Mr Allister’s letter to Minister Foster and the answer received from the DCAL Minister are as follows:
Dear Minister,
Re Centenary of the formation of RUC
On 5th March the Executive announced that the Minister for Culture, Arts and Leisure and yourself would jointly bring forward a programme to commemorate anniversaries throughout the next decade.
I was therefore surprised that in response to AQW 11545/11-15, asking whether the centenary of the formation of the Royal Ulster Constabulary George Cross would be included in the decade of commemorative anniversaries, the Minister for Culture, Arts and Leisure gave no such assurance and managed to avoid any mention of the RUC!
I would therefore be obliged if you could inform me as to what plans there are to mark the formation of the RUC, many of whose members made the ultimate sacrifice while defending our country against the terrorism inflicted upon it by, among others, the current Culture Minister.
It would be completely unacceptable if the anniversary of the formation of the RUC were to be ignored and excluded by the Executive.
I look forward to you addressing this issue.
Yours sincerely,
To ask the Minister of Culture, Arts and Leisure whether the centenary of the formation of the Royal Ulster Constabulary will be included in the decade of commemorative anniversaries which the Executive is co-ordinating.
The political, social and cultural consequences of what happened during the decade of 1912-22 reverberate to this day. The Executive agreed that it was appropriate and necessary to set an inclusive tone to examining major centenaries such as, for example, the Ulster Covenant, the Easter Rising, World War 1, the rise of the Labour Movement, Universal Male and Limited Women’s Suffrage, and Partition.
These significant events influenced or were the direct cause of multiple developments such as the establishment of the Civic Guard (later renamed the Garda Síochána na hÉireann); the Irish Citizen Army; the Ulster Volunteer Force; the Irish Volunteer Force; and the formation of other groupings. I therefore have no doubt that these wider developments will be examined by a diverse range of organisations and interested individuals as a result of the major centenaries and the inclusive approach being advocated by the Executive.
