A County Tyrone priest has described as "disappointing" the rejection by Limavady District Council of a proposal to confer him and a former Presbyterian clergymen with the Freedom of the Borough. Fr Kevin Mullan was commenting on the council’s voting down of a motion from an SDLP member to make him and the Rev David Armstrong the first people to receive the Freedom of the Borough.
Rev Armstrong was forced to leave the east Derry town when he caused uproar in his church for shaking hands with Fr Mullan on Christmas Day 1984.
Rev Armstrong's First Limavady Presbyterian Church was across the road from the Catholic Christ the King Church (where Fr Mullan was ministering at the time) and the Catholic church had just been repaired following a loyalist paramilitary bomb attack.
The neighbourly Yuletide gesture was widely criticised by Presbyterians and more sinisterly, led to death threats against the clergyman, who eventually moved to England and latterly to Carrigaline, Co. Cork.
Councillor Michael Coyle’s proposal had the support of eight of the fourteen council members but was opposed by six unionists and fell on Monday night because it did not have two-thirds majority.
Fr. Mullan, who now lives in Drumquin, Co Tyrone, said that neither he nor Rev. Armstrong had asked for the Freedom of the Borough but when they heard about it they were honoured.
"It was an opportunity to heal a wound that had been there, a wound that had been causing hurt, particularly to David and his family," Fr Mullan commented.
He said Rev. Armstrong, who is now a Church of Ireland minister in Carrigaline in Cork, had become "an exile in his own land" and the Unionist councillors had “reinforced that".
"Northern Ireland, I hope, is a place where we try to find the exiles and bring them back and I think what happened isn't just quite in touch with where Northern Ireland in general wants to go."
Fr Mullan said he hoped the councillors who voted the motion down would think the matter over and revisit it.
“If it had gone through it would have been momentous - the fact that some people felt this was untimely is a little disappointing," he said.
Cllr Coyle said Unionist councillors in Limavady had "missed a wonderful opportunity to recognise the remarkable contribution made by the two clergymen".
"I am convinced their attitude is not shared by the majority of the Unionist community in the borough".
The vote showed that while some people’s attitudes had advanced over the last twenty-five years, “a lot of work still has to be done," he added.
His East Londonderry SDLP Assemblyman colleague John Dallat called the unionist councillors “yesterday’s men” and said they had "a golden opportunity to lift the dark cloud of bigotry which has hung over Limavady for the last twenty-five years but yet again they failed and failed badly”.
Conferring the Freedom of Limavady on the two clerics “would have done much to heal wounds” said Mr Dallat.
"It truly is a night of shame for those who once again put Limavady on the map for the wrong reason."
The Sinn Féin mayor of Limavady, Cllr Brenda Chivers, who supported the Coyle motion, said its defeat was "very sad” and showed that Limavady “hasn't moved on as much as we thought."
But Ulster Unionist councillor Leslie Cubitt said there are "far more pressing issues" in the Limavady area that need council's attention.
"200 people lost their jobs at Seagate, people are losing their houses, electricity is increasing, fuel prices are increasing," he said.
"These are the issues we should be concentrating on - the future not the past."
Democratic Unionist councillor George Robinson said he had nothing against either of the clergymen but said the motion was "very selective when we know that other clergy from both sides of the political divide have done sterling work in administering support and comfort to lots of parishioners from terrorist attacks and indeed in their daily normal pastoral work."
Rev Donald Patton, the Presbyterian moderator, said the timing of the gesture was "not quite right" and said more work to bring Protestant and Catholic communities together was needed."
“I think the issue shows that we do have a lot of work to do to build understanding and trust and respect across our community," he said.
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(Source: CIN)