The future of the Oates plaque has been the cause of much controversy and speculation ever since the Equality Impact Committee was set up earlier this year.

    A stay of execution has been given to the Borough Council Crest, the Mayor’s Chair and the three coats of arms over doors in the Townhall as they were seen to reflect the history of local government in Fermanagh.

    Sinn Fein’s Councillor Brian McCaffrey said that he felt a certain disappointment at the decision about the plaque. “In reality it is going against the spirit of the motion proposed by my own party. It was to set up a neutral environment within the Townhall and this one item is going to be the exception in creating a neutral environment,” he said.

    But Ulster Unionist Councillor Bertie Kerr did not agree. “It seems to me there is an agenda on this Equality Committee to take the Townhall out of the Enniskillen context altogether. We have a great military tradition in Enniskillen which runs very, very closely with both sides of the community,” he said.

    He pointed to a £1.5 million spend in the Republic of Ireland on a centre which promotes military history. “Yet in Fermanagh Sinn Fein comes in with an agenda and bullies the SDLP to go along with them,” he said.

    “We are going back to the old ignorant Irish way of destroying everything of value and looking forward to nothing better,” he said.

    The symbols and emblems only represented one side of the community, said Sinn Fein Councillor Joe Cassidy.

    It is right that the Townhall should have some memento to mark the sacrifices that were made, said Councillor Raymond Ferguson. “It is hard to understand why this should be considered so offensive to certain members of the Council. I do not accept for one minute that the people who they purport to represent find it in the least bit offensive”. He said this was an opportunity to cause offence to people who hold these things dear. “It has been more of a vendetta than anything about equality,” he said.

    Councillor John O’Kane, Chairman of the Equality Impact Committee pointed out that the only items to be removed from the Townhall are military memorabilia. “All artifacts which remind us of local government in the county are being left in the Townhall,” he said. “It is very erroneous to say that everything has been removed,” he said.