20 December 2002
Belfast City Council is launching an investigation into why a £175 Christmas tree it paid for was decorated with lights reading 'Merry Christmas C Company', a reference to a brigade of Loyalist paramilitaries that was until recently part of the Ulster Defence Association.
The tree was put up in a community garden in west Belfast.
Local councillor Frank McCoubrey accused nationalist and republican politicians of having 'hijacked' the matter for political gain. He said that he had made the request for the tree to the council, at the suggestion of the Lower Shankill Community Association, and the cost was being repaid by residents.
PFdec2002
