CONTENTIOUS… The ‘Welcome to Northern Ireland’ sign near Belleek
TWO ‘Welcome to Northern Ireland’ signs in Belleek have been in the wars recently.
The first, not far from the border village on the Shore Road to Enniskillen was defaced with the word ‘Northern’ blacked out so the sign now reads Welcome to Ireland.
The second sign at the bridge in the village was taken down altogether.
Roads Service say the sign from the bridge is currently in storage as it was causing an obstruction to long vehicles transporting wind turbine parts and will be replaced as soon as the work is complete.
The signs caused controversy in many border areas when they were first erected in 2012 and a number were removed altogether by locals. However the signs in Belleek survived unscathed until recently.
John Feely, a Sinn Fein councillor from the area says the signs weren’t really noticed by the local community.
“It wasn’t really much of an issue down our way’” said Feely. “More people had noticed the railings and the trees that had to be taken down to get the windmills through.
Feely questioned the purpose of the signs, given there is already signage present marking the transition between Fermanagh and Donegal.
“They talk about informing people of a change of currency. To start off with, in Belleek we take both currencies anyway. It’s not like it’s an international border where you have to change which side of the road you drive on.
“If you really wanted to do something like that you would put up a sign saying speed limits changing from kph to mph which they have in the South and which is something that would actually be useful.
“As far as the boy that scribbled out the sign he probably just had a few spare hours on a Saturday night,” said Feely. The one in Belcoo is the same. I don’t think the man who did it had as good a hand, he just threw it over the lot. It’s an extra expense on Roads Service when they could be replacing bulbs or cleaning out gullies, that’s where the money should be going.”
Local SDLP councillor John Coyle had this to say when asked about the issue.
“It could be any sign that they could be defacing so I totally condemn the act of vandalism and the defacing of the signage,” said Coyle.
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