LEGAL representatives for West Belfast councillor Siobhan McCallin have denied claims that she deliberately deleted social media posts from a City Hall event where a portrait of a former DUP lord mayor was damaged.
Cllr Siobhan McCallin was present at the Glór na Mona 20th anniversary dinner in October 2024 and shared images from the evening. The Irish News reported earlier this week that Cllr Siobhan McCallin has since deleted the images.
In a statement, Pádraig Ó Muirigh, from Ó Muirigh Solicitors said: "It has been inferred in various media articles and social media posts that our client has been involved in deliberately deleting evidence that might have been relevant to a criminal investigation into the criminal damage of the portrait of DUP peer Lord Wallace Browne at Belfast City Hall in October 2024.
"Our client was first contacted by the media in relation to this matter on Monday 24 November 2025. On this date she had been admitted to the Accident and Emergency Department of the Royal Victoria Hospital in relation to an acute medical condition. Our client has an underlying medical condition which she has spoken about publicly. Since her admission to hospital earlier this week our client has remained unwell and has not been able to address the content of the publications in question. She now wants to take this opportunity to put the record straight.
"Our client was in attendance at an event at Belfast City Hall in October 2024 as a private citizen and member of the Glór na Mona writers’ group. She was not aware that there had been damage to any portrait on that evening until she had seen media reporting of it.
"When our client became a councillor on the 6 January 2025 she decided to delete her personal X account (@siobhan25) and replace it with the X account (@siobhanMC80).
"The reason she had done so was because she had decided that she would be using the new X account as her platform for publication of posts relating to her new public position. She did not want to keep her public and personal posts on the same X account due to trolling and the toxic atmosphere on X, especially prevalent to women in politics.
"Our client has retained her other social media platforms such as Facebook on which she had also posted images from the event at City Hall in October 2024. These images remain on her Facebook account. Any suggestion that she has deliberately deleted the image in question to impede a criminal investigation is entirely without foundation and defamatory of her.
"Our client is a mother of four. She works tirelessly on behalf of her constituent in the Colin District Electoral Area (DEA), which is one of the most disadvantaged in this jurisdiction. She has been left deeply distressed by the content of the media publications and social media posts which has aggravated her underlying medical condition.
"We will continue to monitor media articles and social media posts and will advise our client accordingly. We will take all necessary steps to vindicate her position in relation to any further defamatory comments made against her going forward and we will not hesitate to pursue all legal remedies available in these circumstances."
