A Belfast Met lecturer and Lisburn councillor has called on a US Congressman to reflect on his use of the term ‘Planter’.
Castlereagh South councillor, Simon Lee (Green) was reacting to American Democrat Richard Neal using the term while speaking to RTE about the Good Friday Agreement.
The word Planter is in reference to people who came to Ireland during the Plantation of Ulster in the 1600s.
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“The Good Friday Agreement belongs to America too,” said Congressman Neal.
“We were honest brokers along the way, accepting the notion that we could make space for the Planter and the Gael to live together,” he added.
Mr Neal who is chairman of the powerful US House of Representatives’ Ways and Means Committee, which has the ability to approve or block US trade deals, is leading a bi-partisan delegation of US politicians in a visit to the island of Ireland this week.
During his visit he repeated his pledge that there would be no US-UK trade deal approved if the British government did anything that threatened peace and stability on the island of Ireland.
However, Cllr Lee, who also lectures under the school of religious studies at Belfast Met, argued that the word Planter could suggest a hierarchy of Irishness in Northern Ireland.
He said: “I do not know if he (Congressman Neal) intended to use the language in such a way, but it is very outdated and can suggest that there is a type of second class citizen in Northern Ireland.
“Perhaps he said it out of ignorance. For whatever reason, it is certainly not helpful and he must clarify why has has said it.
“Is someone any less Irish if they are associated with this term?
“I have been told that Peter Robinson (former NI First Minister) and John Hewitt (poet) have used the term in the past.
“Perhaps there is now a time to have a real conversation about it.
“Some people may not see the sensitivities in using the term, but I do.”
Democratic and Republican delegates from the US house of representatives and senate, led by congressman Richard Neal, were in Derry on Wednesday.
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