Sinn Fein’s Conor Murphy in legal row over changes to Executive document

A dispute could now be decided in the Courts after Sinn Fein’s Minister for Regional Development, Mr. Conor Murphy, made alterations to an official executive document.  

It was reported in the Belfast Telegraph yesterday that Mr. Conor Murphy has made changes to the wording of Department for Regional development strategy blueprint for growth.  The motives for the changes are clearly based upon Republican Ideology.  References to “Northern Ireland” have been changed to “the North” whilst references to “Londonderry” have been changed to “Derry”  

The Londonderry/Derry name dispute is an old chestnut.  It is not necessary to go into detail here because the history of the dispute and the legal position are set out on Wikepedia. 

As the law stands, the City is called “Londonderry” even though the local council bears the shorter name “Derry”.  Personally, I don’t have any real preference for either name.  I would be happy to have the city re-named “New Derry” or any other name, if that helped both communities to move on.  

The change of the wording from “Northern Ireland” to “the North” is much more serious.  This particular alteration is likely to lead anybody reading the document to confuse “the North” with somewhere like Londonderry/Derry or some other place in the North of Northern Ireland.   Mr. Murphy may wish to reflect upon the likelihood that people from anywhere in the world could be reading the blueprint on the Department for Regional Development website.  

Mr. Murphy and Sinn Fein must accept the original text.  If they do not, then Mr. Robinson would be right to take the matter to Court.  Mr. Murphy could also find himself on the receiving end of sanctions for breaching the Ministerial code.  Once again, we are reminded of Sinn Fein’s propensity for ideology to become a barrier in the way of sensible decision-making.