Sinn Fein has been accused of enforcing cultural and sporting apartheid in Northern Ireland after a west Belfast football club, Donegal Celtic, decided not to play a soccer match against the RUC.
Reversing an earlier decision to play the match, the club cited "unfair and unreasonable pressure" on members and players as its reason for not taking part in the fixture scheduled to take place in Newtownards, Co Down, today.
The RUC Chief Constable, Mr Ronnie Flanagan, said he was saddened and disappointed by the decision.
"I'm aware of how much the match means to the players, I know how much they wanted to fulfil this fixture," he said.
He said it was hard to come to any conclusion other than that the players had pulled out because of intimidation.
A club committee member, Mr Martin McCullagh, told The Irish Times that members were "disgusted" that they had been forced to cancel the match.
He said he did not want to elaborate on precisely what pressure had been exerted on club members who last Sunday voted 148 to 70 to go ahead with the Steel and Sons Cup semi-final tie. The decision was reversed without a ballot.
An Alliance party councillor, Mr Stewart Dickson, said Sinn Fein had put pressure on the club and forced it to back down.
"Sinn Fein has won. Not content with allowing the football club to come to a democratic decision on whether or not to play tomorrow's match, they have bullied the club's players and officials into a U-turn. In place of this democratic decision has been put cultural and sporting apartheid."
An Ulster Unionist councillor, Mr Jim Rodgers, said club members told him "they were coming under extreme pressure from the republican movement".
"They were told that if they proceeded with the game against the RUC, there was the likelihood that their clubhouse would be burned down, their cars damaged and some of their houses attacked", he told RTE News.
The club said yesterday the match had caused annoyance and upset to a great number of people in the community.
A statement continued: "In recent days the pressure has so increased as to have become unbearable. Regrettably, therefore, Donegal Celtic has come to the conclusion that the only sensible course of action open to it is to withdraw."
Sinn Fein and the Centre for Human Rights in West Belfast welcomed the news.
The Sinn Fein leader, Mr Gerry Adams, said last week that "no nationalist, indeed no democrat, should have anything to do with the RUC". He later denied that in making these comments he was exerting pressure on the club to pull out of the game.
The Labour Party leader, Mr Ruairi Quinn, said Sinn Fein had adopted a policy of "sustained ostracisation".
"It is clear that elements within republicanism still have problems with the basic tenets of democracy," he said.
The Alliance party president, Mr Philip McGarry, said the episode represented "a clear setback for community relations".
The SDLP Assembly member for the West Belfast, Dr Joe Hendron, said: "I regret the club's decision, but I do understand it." The club's committee said it would write to Mr Adams, the local MP, to request a meeting in an effort to resolve the matter for future competitions.
Teams from Donegal Celtic and the RUC could be drawn together again, meaning the current row would be revisited. Two years ago the club was forced to withdraw from an encounter with the police team.
Ms Anne Monaghan of the Centre for Human Rights welcomed the club's decision. "Given the RUC's record of the violation of the rights of the people of west Belfast, it would have been unwise to give this organisation any recognition or credibility on the sporting field," she said.
The Sinn Fein Assembly member, Mr Alex Maskey, admitted that his party had spoken to Donegal Celtic about its intention to play the fixture. "We made our views known. We are entitled to do that; that is not intimidation," he said.
The Munster Fine Gael MEP, Mr John Cushnahan, said: "Unreconstructed thugs and fascists have overturned a previously free and democratic decision". Mr Cushnahan, a former member of Belfast City Council, called on Mr Adams to condemn the incident.