By Brendan Anderson

THE British government is to hand out £3.3 million ($6.8 million) to Unionist communities for the replacement of blood-thirsty sectarian paramilitary wall murals.

The move follows last week’s award of £104,000 to members of the Protestant Orange Order in Belfast to employ a development officer to soften the sectarian image of the organization.

Nationalist politicians have protested at the use of taxpayers’ cash to finance the replacement of illegal murals. Most Catholics feel the paintings, often depicting armed and masked paramilitaries, are intimidating and in bad taste.

One Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) wall painting, for example, shows hooded gunmen wielding a sledge hammer in front of a house. This is a reference to the method used in several murders when UVF men gained entry to their victims’ home by smashing down the doors.

Like the widespread flying of paramilitary flags from street lights, extremist groups like the UVF and the Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF) use the murals to mark out their territory and glorify their actions. Residents living beside the murals are seldom consulted.

British ministers at the Northern Ireland Office (NIO) said they plan to have the offensive murals replaced with more acceptable “public art” such as paintings of deceased Belfast soccer player George Best, the ill-fated Titanic, and local British army war heroes.

Announcing details of the cash award, made through a “Re-imaging Communities Program,” the NIO said the aim was to allow people to “reclaim public spaces in their community.”

“We want to improve prospects, build community capacity, improve public service and ultimately free communities from paramilitary influence. The purpose of the Re-Imaging Communities Program will be to engage local people and their communities in finding ways of replacing divisive murals and emblems with more positive imagery. New murals and public art will transform parks, housing estates and built-up areas across Northern Ireland, celebrating the aspirations of the whole community and helping people feel part of their own local community,” the NIO said.

However, North Belfast Assembly Member Alban Maginness of the SDLP said it was wrong for people to be paid to remove paramilitary wall paintings.

“It is clear that any paramilitary murals designed to intimidate or mark out territory should be removed. Indeed, their very existence is illegal. That is why today’s announcement really beggars belief,” Maginness said.

Sinn Fein Euro-MP Bairbre de Brun said funding for communities should “be on the basis of need and not political bias.”

“Only last week the British government announced £100,000 in funding for the Orange Order, an inherently sectarian and discriminatory organization which seeks to parade through areas where they seek to cause gross offence to local residents. The British government sent out the message that not only does it endorse the activities of the Orange Order but that it wants to see these activities expanded and promoted,” she said.

Frankie Gallagher of the Ulster Political Research Group, which is linked to the UFF and Ulster Defense Association, said a paramilitary mural had already been replaced on a hard-line Loyalist estate at Tullycarnet in east Belfast.

“We were ahead of the game, to say something positive. It was a big risk at the time and we were quite frightened and apprehensive at times and wondered how would this be taken. But after we did it, people in Tullycarnet, pensioners and right down the age scale, were proud of our estate and the message we were sending out,” said Gallagher.

Meanwhile, the annual Orangemen’s Drumcree march went ahead on Sunday without incident. Once again the march was prohibited from marching on the Nationalist Garvaghy Road.

Orangemen today gathered for their usual “bonfire night” before July 12th, the busiest day of the marching season. Tensions have been much lower this year and a relatively calm July 12th is expected.