A former DUP MLA was forced to apologise this week after he was accused of making a racist remark when he referred to African Americans in the US as 'The Blacks'.
DUP Alderman Maurice Devenney retracted his remarks during a full meeting of Derry City and Strabane District Council on Thursday, May 26.
Alderman Devenney's comments came while members were debating a motion brought forward by Sinn Fein Cllr Sandra Duffy.
Read more: Cost of living: What money NI will receive from UK funding package
The motion read: "That this Council notes the result of the 2022 Assembly election and calls for the democratic outcome to be respected in line with the Good Friday Agreement and an Executive formed to agree a three-year budget and a programme for government to deal with the cost-of-living crisis and invest an extra £1 billion in our health service.
"Further, this Council calls on MLAs who are blocking the formation of an Executive and functioning Assembly to surrender their salary until these issues are addressed."
When brought into the debate by Graham Warke, Ald Devenney accused Sinn Fein "of playing politics" and also took aim at the US delegation that visited Northern Ireland this week.
He said: "[Sinn Fein] have some neck on them after they pulled the Assembly down for three years and there was crisis after crisis. We had to row our way through it.
"To block salaries for MLAs, I know our MLAs have said after a certain length of time that they're happy to take a reduction in salary.
"But when I look at Sinn Fein MPs in Westminister, I don't see any call for them to lose their salary, or cut their salaries.
"And Mayor, the Good Friday Agreement has been mentioned so many times. The Good Friday Agreement was set up for unionists and the nationalist republican community to work together and at this juncture, unionists are not buying into the protocol.
"We stood on a mandate that we would not go in to share power unless the protocol was sorted out. There is not one unionist MLA that I know supports the protocol... and we have a mandate on that there. We have to sort out the problem.
"The unhelpful opinion of Mr [Richard] Neal has really insulted the PUL [Protestant, Unionist and Loyalist] community. And what they've done [is that] they've come here and they've exacerbated the situation. They've really got the PUL community's back up by some of these comments, calling them 'Planters'.
"When we look at America at the moment, I think Mr Neal would need to go back and look after some of the social issues that he has in his own country when we talk about the gun law and we see what has happened.
"We see America and how they dealt with the blacks through the years, and the Indians and the Arapahos, and he talks about borders but if he looks at some of his own borders.
"We will not be supporting this because it's just playing politics."
Alderman's Devenney's comments caused outrage, with Sinn Fein's Cllr Duffy and Aontu Cllr Emmett Doyle both putting their grievances on the record.
Cllr Duffy said: "It's rich that the DUP are talking about playing politics. I think there's a bit of a brass neck going on there. And for Maurice's information, Sinn Fein MPs don't take a salary from Westminister.
"I would also like to point out to Maurice, he would really need to mind his language. He made quite a racist comment there when he was speaking.
"He probably didn't even notice but other people have noticed and I would ask him again to rewatch this and listen to what he said because what he said was most definitely racist."
Raising a point of order, Cllr Doyle said: "[This] needs to be addressed right now by this meeting. There was a derogatory, I believe, term used by Alderman Devenney when he referred to African Americans in the US. That language is not acceptable.
"I think we have to address it here and now and send a very strong message that, that type of language is not acceptable from anyone, especially not an elected representative within this council.
"I would like to hear your ruling on that [mayor] and. if possible, that Alderman Devenny be asked to expressly apologise and refute the word that he used."
But mayor Graham Warke said that Cllr Doyle's comments were not a point of order before pausing the meeting for 23 minutes.
This prompted SDLP Cllr and Programme Manager of the North-West Migrants Forum, Lilian Seenoi-Barr, to say: "Did he just let that go?"
However, after the brief interval, Alderman Maurice Devenney did make a statement about his comments.
"I have reflected on what has been said and it was an invertive use of language," he said
"There is not a racist bone in my body and at the end of the day if I have said something that has... somebody has felt annoyed or felt insulted by, I apologise for that and it's very unusual and this has never happened to me before.
"I can only apologise for the use of language and apologise to those who feel annoyed by it. I reflected on it at the break and I wanted to get in first.
"I reflect and I do apologise."
MyDerry contacted the DUP for comment asking whether Alderman Devenny's comments would prompt an investigation.
The publication also attempted to contact Mr Devenny on his contact number via the council's official website.
Neither request received a response at the time of publication.
The original motion calling for MLAs blocking the formation of a new NI Assembly to surrender their salaries was passed by members.
Read more: Vacant properties owned by Stormont lying dormant at £1million cost in security fees
Read more: Northern Ireland will get UK cost of living cash, Treasury says
For the latest politics news straight to your inbox, sign up to our newsletter here.
