TWO Ulster Unionist Party councillors have called for the expulsion of a senior party member from the North Belfast constituency association who they allege called for Catholics to be shot.
Mr Fred Rodgers, a Belfast city councillor, and Mr Andy Beattie, a Newtownabbey councillor, said last night they were in the company of Ms Dineen Walker when she allegedly said she wanted a gun to "shoot taigs".
Ms Walker, secretary of the Rathcoole/Cloghfern branch of the UUP in north Belfast, said last night that her remarks were misinterpreted but she refused to comment further.
She was, however, quoted in yesterday's Sunday Times as saying that her comments were taken out of context. "Yes, I did say `I wish I had a gun to shoot them all', but I only meant the IRA... I meant shoot the troublemakers," the newspaper reported her as saying.
Mr Rodgers and Mr Beattie last night insisted that they heard Ms Walker say she wanted a gun to shoot taigs, a pejorative term for Catholics. "She said she wanted a gun to shoot the taigs," said Mr Rodgers.
The alleged comments were made at a North Belfast UUP meeting in October, he added. Both he and Mr Beattie want her expelled from the party. He said a special meeting of the party in north Belfast has been organised for tomorrow to discuss the allegations.
Mr Rodgers also said that after Ms Walker made her alleged comments during an "informal" meeting another UUP member at the meeting in October said he was a member of the outlawed UVF.
Both Mr Rodgers and Mr Beattie said Ms Walker's alleged comments could seriously damage the party in north Belfast, when it was trying to reach out to pro Union Catholics.
Mr Reg Empey, vice president of the UUP, said the issue in the first instance was a matter for the constituency association, although if merited the party centrally could intervene in the dispute.
Twelve years ago George Seawright, who was later murdered by the IPLO republican group, was expelled from the DUP after he called for Catholics and their priests to be burned.
