The DUP's Gregory Campbell has warned against viewing Derry's Protestant community as an "endangered species."
The Waterside councillor's remarks follow the recent launch of a new initative - the Gateway to Protestant Participation (GPP) project - which aims to tackle Protestant "alienation" in the North West.
The programme is designed to "encourage the pa
rticipation of the Protestant community by promoting a shared sense of belonging, addressing issues of marginalisation and tackling attitudes to racism and sectarianism".
Gregory Campbell says the issues to be examined by GPP are similar in substance to those regularly highlighted by his party since the early 1980s.
He told the 'Journal': "The key to the success of the current initiative will be the attitude of the majority nationalist community to it. In the 1980s and 90s, political nationalism reacted with outrage at any suggestion that the problems faced by the unionist people in Londonderry could be traced to the actions and deliberations of, firstly, the IRA, and, secondly, those who had political control in the city, the SDLP.
"From the troubles started in 1969, Unionists felt under siege, particularly on the Cityside of the Foyle. The murder of police officers, UDR personnel, prison officers and Protestant civilians heightened the already vulnerable nature of the Protestant position on the west bank.
"Undoubtedly, some people moved across the river out of fear that something might happen but, for many, it was case of what DID occur.
"The attempted revisionism in more recent times does not help deal with the problem. Indeed, one prominent nationalist businessman interviewed recently about this problem said that Protestants moved across the river from the threat of violence but that the homes they moved to were better. If it wasn't so serious, it would be hilarious> He nearly said the IRA was doing us a favour. This is the type of re-writing of events that must be avoided at all costs."
Genuine, inclusive
The DUP politician believes the GPP project offers another opportunity "to take Londonderry to a point where there is a genuine desire to be inclusive."
He says: "The approach adopted by nationalists, in the past, and republicans, at present, to demonstrate how things could be in their mythical new Ireland will fail utterly as it has already done.
"The continued campaign on the name change of the city is a prime example of how there has to be a step change in the local environment where the unionist isn't looked upon as an endangered species who can be preserved but only as an example of how it was 'in the old days'.
"Our outlook and history has to be seen to be part of the fabric of modern day society. There are signs in the voluntary and community sector that some of those from a nationalist background recognise the need to move on - hopefully, that view will be more widely shared than was the case previously."
