FROM:- Magheralin Resident (name and address supplied).
In response to the statement published on page six of last week’s Lurgan Mail from Councillor George Savage and the letter published on page 16 from Samuel Gardiner MLA with regards to the flying of flags in Magheralin.
Firstly the comments made b
y Dolores Kelly are entirely accurate, paramilitary flags representing the UVF and YCV were erected outside the local primary school and on the Moira Road on July 2.
At the same time Union and Red Hand Flags were put up throughout the village, the people who put these flags up do not live in Magheralin and are well known individuals who make no attempt to hide that fact.
The remarks attributed to them by Dolores Kelly are perfectly right.
The paramilitary flags were left flying for a month and were removed in early August in the early hours of the morning with police present.
The photograph which appeared in the Lurgan Mail of the Steps Road was taken after paramilitary flags had been removed and therefore only Union and Red Hand flags can be seen.
The people who put these flags up are quick to arrive each year to carry out their task, however, they are not as quick when it comes to removing them.
This is left to the likes of BT, NIE and others after repeated lobbying, otherwise the tatters of these flags would be left to blight the village for the foreseeable future.
George Savage says that he “Passes through the area daily and has not seen a paramilitary flag.”
Well perhaps if he were to stop his car and get out of it now and then and speak to the people of Magheralin he would be better informed.
Samuel Gardiner did not even claim to have been in the village preferring instead to base his comments on the photograph in the Lurgan Mail, enough said.
Both seem less interested in Magheralin and more intent on criticising Dolores Kelly, well they have both shot off at the mouth and shot themselves in the foot.
Magheralin is a mixed community with excellent community relations and does not need or want people coming from outside once a year intent on raising tensions and stirring up trouble.
But when it is happening and the evidence is there for anyone to see then these two gentlemen would be better thought of if they acknowledged what is fact rather than trying to deny the truth for political point scoring.
