THE new government in Westminster has been urged to return the wooden table that took pride of place at the G8 summit when it was held in Fermanagh to be returned home to the county, and to fund both the new Enniskillen bypass and a new local waterpark.
Leaders of the world’s eight most powerful countries, including Barack Obama and Vladamir Putin, sat around the specially-commissioned negotiating table during the intergovernmental summit at the Lough Erne Resort in 2013.
The event was particularly historic given it was the last time Russia was included in the eight, with the summit reduced to the G7 in the years since.
The table itself was made from locally-sourced elm wood, and it was to be given to the people of Fermanagh when the summit ended.
However, the table was taken back to London by then Prime Minister David Cameron after the event and has been in Downing Street ever since, despite the promises it would remain in the county after the summit.
Cllr Sheamus Greene is determined to right this wrong, and in his own words, has been “like a dog with a bone” in his attempts to have the previous Conservative government return the table. He is now hoping there may be more luck with the new Labour government, and has written to new Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
Cllr Greene began his letter to Prime Minister Starmer by explaining he had written to every prime minister since the 2013 summit about their “broken promises” regarding the table, as well as the promised benefits Fermanagh was told to expect as host of the G8 that have not materialised.
“Leading up to the G8 summit you foreign office officials attended meetings of Fermanagh District Council and promised all sorts of advantages for our county in hosting the G8,” he wrote.
“We were informed that we could expect a £600 million boost to our economy, as well as a new waterpark and a much needed bypass for our county town.”
Cllr Greene noted he had been “very sceptical of British Tory government promises at the time, but unfortunately others fell for these fairy-tale promises.”
Calling on Prime Minister Starmer to “fulfil the broken promises of your predecessors” by funding the promised projects, he noted that – “to add insult to injury” – was currently housed in the Thatcher Room at 10 Downing Street.
In an apparent jab at the controversial lockdown parties at Downing Street, Cllr Greene continued, “I am also led to believe that at least one of your predecessors (Boris) and his staff have had many a good party around this table in the past few years.
“As a non-confrontational Fermanagh person and with goodwill in my heart, I will be glad to make good on any repairs the table needs after these boisterous parties in Downing Street which Boris and his staff members had, if it is indeed returned to its rightful place in Fermanagh.”
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