BBC Radio Ulster’s Talkback couldn’t get anyone at the Ti Chulainn Cultural Centre in Mullaghbawn, nor anyone in Sinn Féin, to comment on this story in today’s Belfast Telegraph. We’ll wait to see if the Northern Ireland Children’s Commissioner can get any further. From the Belfast Telegraph report
Children have appeared dressed up as republican paramilitaries and brandishing replica guns in a south Armagh community centre which has received hundreds of thousands of pounds in EU funds.
The children, some of primary school age, were photographed at the Ti Chulainn cultural centre in Mullaghbawn.
They were wearing balaclavas, combat jackets and trousers, dark glasses and berets, and brandishing replica weapons including AK47s and Armalites.
A complaint has been made to the Children’s Commissioner Patricia Lewsley. The PSNI will also be asked to investigate.
Despite several telephone calls and written questions submitted by the Belfast Telegraph, no-one from the Ti Chulainn centre would comment on the matter.
The photographs were posted on a social networking website by a Lurgan Sinn Fein member.
As the Belfast Telegraph report points out
The Ti Chulainn centre has benefited from local and international public funding. The Special EU Programmes Body (SEUPB) has confirmed a previous award of £42,000 and a current award of £264,500 to the centre for “specific tourist-related activity”.
Sinn Fein declined to comment directly about the matter.
In a statement the Ti Chulainn committee said: “The event in question took place six months ago and in all that time we have received no queries or complaints about this event or any previous event held in Ti Chulainn; rather we have received many positive comments relating to this event and Ti Chulainn in general.”
Well, that’s all right then…
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