Ulster Unionist Leader Mike Nesbitt has condemned Monday night’s incident in which paint was thrown at the Apprentice Boys Memorial Hall in Magazine street in Londonderry city centre.

Mr Nesbitt said:

“I was most disappointed to learn that paint had been thrown at the Apprentice Boys Memorial Hall in Londonderry last night.

Whilst in Londonderry just a few weeks ago I visited the Hall as a guest of the Apprentice Boys of Derry and was taken on a tour.  I learned about the work which the Apprentice Boys have been engaged in with regard to promoting the organisation and their culture and its efforts to reach out to the whole City in order to broaden understanding of the story of the Apprentice Boys and the role they play.

When we talk about working towards a shared future, people need to be clear that in Londonderry that future includes the Apprentice Boys and their right to commemorate and celebrate their culture and heritage.

This is a momentous year for Londonderry. It has been chosen as the UK City of Culture, the new peace bridge is open, major regeneration projects are under way and this week it is hosting the yachts in the Clipper round the world race.  This is the face which the vast majority of Londonderry’s citizens want to show to the world.

Those who indulged in the attack on the Memorial Hall are seeking to create and exploit old divisions and quarrels.

 The Apprentice Boys of Derry are bigger and better than those shallow people who carried out this attack. And there is a simple message for the perpetrators. The Apprentice Boys are here to stay. Endurance is in their DNA.

I am confident that those who attacked the Hall will be rejected by the vast majority of the people of the City and I would appeal to anyone who can assist in tracking down whoever was responsible to contact the PSNI immediately.”

-ENDS-