A GANG of youths shouted vile sectarian abuse at the husband of an SDLP general election candidate after he confronted them over stolen posters.
Had a run in with a few young lads who taking down @ClaireHanna’s posters the other night. You can see yourself in the video how it went.
— Dónal Lyons (@DonalLyons) June 7, 2024
It’s desperately sad to younger ones echo the old prejudices. Politics needs to do better for them. pic.twitter.com/erTGFpSzV3
Donal Lyons – who is himself an SDLP Councillor – is the husband of Claire Hanna, who is standing in South Belfast and Mid Down. He was contacted by a constituent who witnessed posters being pulled down in Flush Park in the Rosetta area of South Belfast on Wednesday night.
As he stepped out of his car and approached the group, Mr Lyons initially told the youths to "Put the posters down and you are grand, otherwise this is going to the PSNI."
Some of the posters were dropped as the gang walked away, but others in the group shouted sectarian abuse at the SDLP man, including "Taigs will be crucified" and "F*****g Fenian rat."
Claire Hanna was elected MP for South Belfast in 2019 and is vying to retain her seat in the upcoming Westminster election on July 4 in the newly created South Belfast and Mid Down consituency.
While some of the youths were threatening and abusive, at least one caught on video looked nervous as Mr Lyons asked him to hand over posters he was holding. The youngster said he was given the posters before dropping them.
Mr Lyons posted the video to his X account on Friday morning.
"It’s desperately sad to younger ones echo the old prejudices," he said. "Politics needs to do better for them."
The incident has been reported to the PSNI.
