Sectarianism: the elephant in the room

By Claire McNeilly

May 29 2009 05:05 AM

Sir Hugh Orde last night delivered a warning over sectarianism in Northern Ireland, describing it as “the elephant in the room”.

The chief constable was speaking at an inaugural special lecture organised by the University of Ulster to mark the tenth anniversary of the Patten Report.

Addressing an audience of professionals at the university’s Belfast campus, Sir Hugh joined Policing Board chairman Sir Des Rea to highlight progress made in policing over the last decade following the implementation of reforms set out in 1999 that saw the PSNI replace the RUC.

Highlighting the sectarian murder of Catholic community worker Kevin McDaid (49) and the attempted murder of Damien Fleming (46) in Coleraine, Co Antrim, last weekend, Sir Hugh said sectarianism was a matter for local communities and police future progress.

“The elephant in the room is sectarianism, brought out in a stark way last weekend,” he said.

“But Coleraine is not unique.

“In fact, one would have thought Coleraine was not a place where this sort of stuff was going to go on.

“But we know, and the communities know, and the First Minister and Deputy First Minister would probably acknowledge, there’s a huge piece of work to do where communities have to take responsibility for dealing with that particular issue.”

Belfast Telegraph