Only last weekend a group of teenage girls who were coming out of the Verbal Arts Centre in Bishop Street were attacked both physically and verbally by a group of men aged about forty years old who were attending a function in the apprentice boys memorial hall. This incident hasn't been reported in the local media. This funding and the recognition that goes with it will make them more secure in the belief that sectarianism is right because not only have they been rewarded year after year by the British government, now the 26 county administration is jumping on the bandwagon in the name of culture. It is ridiculous in the extreme to think that such a supremacist body as Apprentice Boys of Derry, who for years has brought the city of Derry to a standstill with sectarian parades can be supported in such a fashion. Does Brian Cowan not realise that the people of Garvaghy Road have come under attack in their very own community due to similar sectarian gangs who hold nationalist areas to ransom.
People are still under siege, unable to go to work or shop in their own town.
It is their area that is closed off every time the Apprentice Boys want to go out for a communal walk. By their actions the Irish administration are as guilty by adding fuel to an already well lit fire of hatred by feeding sectarianism and as a Party, we would call on this type of action to be condemned. The IRSP will be sending a letter to protest at the minister's decision to fund the sectarian charade.