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E-mailA DUP MP is opposing plans by the University of Ulster students' union at Coleraine to sell the Easter lily claiming that it "commemorates a squalid rebellion instigated by extremists".
Gregory Campbell accused the students' union of "outrageous sectarianism" and claimed the lily commemorated "the terrorists" of 1916. In comparison to the lily, he said the poppy represented freedom and democracy.
He was speaking after the students' union voted to allow the Easter lily to be sold on its premises in addition to the poppy. The motion stated that the profit from lily sales would go to charities working with victims of the Troubles.
The idea was to give equal respect to the poppy and the lily. Campbell has written to the university's vice-chancellor warning that selling the lily could be in breach of equality legislation and the Equality Commission's guidelines.
He said: "When the men of Ulster and other parts of Ireland, from both traditions, were dying side-by-side in France and Belgium, the 1916 rebels were plotting their criminal insurrection against the United Kingdom."He expressed confidence that, after legal consultation, the lily would not be sold.
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Campbell would want to have a look through the history books at how much of the world his beloved United Kingdom occupied back in 1916 to see that those fighting on the western front were fighting for anything but freedom.