Gordon Lyons refuses to stand down over social media post

A Stormont minister has rejected calls for him to resign over a social media post about the location of migrant families who left their homes hours before the centre was attacked.

Communities Minister Gordon Lyons of the Democratic Unionist Party ( DUP) said that people caught up in clashes in Ballymena were being temporarily moved to Larne Leisure Centre. It was later attacked by about a crowd of 100 people and set on fire.

Sinn Féin Finance Minister John O’Dowd is among those calling for Lyons to consider his position claiming he “failed to show leadership”.

Northern Ireland Secretary Hilary Benn said Lyons should reflect on his comments, while the Green Party called for Lyons to resign.

The attack on Larne Leisure Centre came during a third night of violence in Northern Ireland.

Police have been attacked with fireworks, bottles and bricks during the disorder.

The worst of the rioting was in Ballymena, but unrest also spread to other towns, including Larne, about 20 miles (30km) away, on Wednesday evening.

The fire service said that fire damage to the centre had been “contained mainly to the front reception but there was extensive smoke damage”.

In a statement on Wednesday night, Mid and East Antrim Borough Council said the families placed at the centre had all been “safely relocated” and were no longer using the centre.

However, Lyons has been criticised for an earlier Facebook post in which he said he had been made aware that “a number of individuals were temporarily moved to Larne Leisure Centre”.

O’Dowd said the post was “unacceptable”, accusing him of lacking in “sympathy or compassion” for the families who had fled their homes.

“He presented a poor image of himself” he added.

Justice Minister Naomi Long also criticised the communities minister, adding: “I don’t think his comments were measured or wise”.

“It may have been in the public domain, but by naming it, he actually elevated it and that is the responsibility that comes with being a public figure and a minister.

“To say he wasn’t consulted, to me, is just an extraordinary statement.”

Alliance MLA Danny Donnelly who was in the leisure centre when it was attacked said it was “incredibly reckless and dangerous to highlight the location of where these people were being kept and brought to a place of safety”.

The SDLP’s Matthew O’Toole said he would refer Lyons to the standards commissioner over his comments, saying “lives are at stake”.

Green Party councillor Áine Groogan accused the minister of choosing to “stir division and deflect from his own failures”.

“This isn’t leadership. It’s cowardice. And it proves what many already know: Gordon Lyons is unfit for public office and should resign.”

Lyons has defended his comments saying the information was in the public domain, and had been confirmed by the local council.

“I will very strongly hit back at any notion that I had revealed the use of this facility to the public when the protest was already planned, when everybody knew what was happening,” Lyons told BBC Radio Ulster’s Good Morning Ulster programme.

He added that “the police had got in contact with our local councillors to say: ‘We need to defuse the situation and let people know that this is or should no longer be the focus of any protest’.”

He also condemned those behind what he called the “shameful” attack on the leisure centre.