A poster of a brain which features slogans such as “Save Ulster from Sodomy” and “Fuck the Pope” has outraged a Belfast politician.
Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) councillor Graham Craig said the poster, which has been erected in Belfast city centre, is “anti-Protestant ... offensive and derogatory”.
The poster features slogans which are used pejoratively to refer to Northern Ireland’s Catholic community, seeming to suggest that is how some Protestants think. Craig said it “stereotypes” the Protestant community and wants it removed.
Craig condemned the poster after being contacted about it by constituents. He said similar posters had been erected elsewhere in Belfast.
“I have asked the council to remove it and contacted the police to report it as a hate crime,” he told the Belfast Telegraph.
Theresa May’s minority Conservative British government maintains power with DUP support.
The poster shows a diagram of a brain, with arrows pointing to slogans associated with Northern Ireland Protestant loyalists. One of the slogans, “The Sash my Father Wore” is a song popular with the Orange Order that commemorates the victory of King William III in the Williamite War in Ireland in 1690–1691.
Another slogan, “Kill all Taigs”, uses a derogatory term which refers to Northern Irish Catholics.
The brain in the poster is coloured red, white and blue, which is a reference to the union jack flag flown by some Northern Ireland Protestants to show their loyalty to the United Kingdom rather than the Republic of Ireland.
“The poster stereotypes Protestants, is simplistic in outlook and above all sectarian,” Craig said.
“Belfast is a shared city and there is no place for this sort of thing in 2018. I call on anyone with information as to the origins of this poster to bring it forward to the police.”
There has been much debate on social media about the meaning of the poster, with one Twitter user saying “It would be more effective if there were twin graphics with a republican bigot brain alongside it.”
