Statement by TUV leader Jim Allister:
“Having challenged the Assembly Commission repeatedly over many years about the hiding away of Stormont’s history in a warehouse I welcome the fact that some of the dustsheets have been thrown off. At long last the beautiful portraits of former Prime Ministers are now, finally, back out on show in the building. Now that they are in their rightful place I have no doubt that many will question why they were ever concealed for so long.
“Important figures from Northern Ireland’s history also feature. Nationalist leader Joe Devlin and Sir Henry Wilson, who was a senior officer in the First World War and security adviser to the first government of Northern Ireland before his murder by the IRA in 1922, are on display. Why a portrait of the man who allegedly ordered the murder, Michael Collins, is just round the corner from where Sir Henry Wilson’s now hangs is less easy to determine. Including portraits of Collins and de Valera who never stood in Stormont is a questionable decision which reeks of pandering.
“The greatest mistake in my mind is putting photographs which feature Martin McGuinness and Gerry Adams opposite the memorial to Edgar Graham. Doing so insults the memory of an innocent victim of the IRA campaign.
“While there have been questionable additions, an important omission a portrait of Her Majesty the Queen. One is owned by Stormont and 2022, being Her Platinum Jubilee year, would have been the ideal time to have it back out on show where it belongs.”