A DUP councillor has called for Irish language organisation Glór na Móna to be barred from holding events at Belfast City Hall.

It comes after a portrait of former DUP Lord Mayor Wallace Browne was damaged during Glór na Móna's twentieth anniversary dinner at Belfast City Hall in October 2024.

Last week, the Public Prosecution Service said there was insufficient evidence to charge a man investigated in connection with allegations of criminal damage to the portrait.

At Monday night's full Council meeting, DUP group leader Sarah Bunting called for Glór na Móna to be barred from future bookings at City Hall, pointing out that in 2019 a loyalist band from Glasgow was banned from the civic venue.

Videos shared on social media from the time showed uniformed members of Govan Protestant Boys playing sectarian songs as they paraded unescorted around City Hall. Among the songs which band members and supporters sang along to was 'No Pope of Rome', which contains the words 'No Pope and no priests/F**k your rosary beads/Every day is the twelfth of July.'

DUP Councillor Jordan Doran described the portrait damage as both "sectarian and anti-semitic" as it was painted by a Jewish artist.

"To allow an organisation that presided over such blatant breach of respect to continue hosting events here would undermine public confidence," he said. "We are not proposing a ban on a language or culture but simply responding to behaviour that violated the basic rights of respect and civil harmony that this building demands."

Alderman Jim Rodgers questioned why there are no cameras installed in the corridors of City Hall adding that City Hall need to look into it.

SDLP Councillor Donal Lyons said in response to Cllr Bunting's call for a ban on Glór na Móna that it was his understanding that Govan Protestant Boys were banned from City Hall and not the event organisers.

Councillor Bunting then stated she was happy for a Council report to be brought back to councillors on the portrait damage incident, which was agreed.

Sinn Féin Councillor Ryan Murphy said of the PPS decision not to proceed with the portrait case: "People can't seem to accept the outcome."