Mr Dickson said: “A considerable amount of money and effort has, over many years, been invested to bring the local community in Carrickfergus together by both the Council and the Housing Executive. This investment has included reimaging which has taken place on several prominent murals in the town to make them ‘community friendly’.
“It is therefore disappointing that this mural, which is anything but inclusive, should appear. It will do little to engender community cohesiveness and is polls apart from where we need to be in terms of building a shared, cohesive and integrated future.
“This type of mural is a relic of the past. It has no place in a Northern Ireland that is meant to be moving forward. I have spent a large part of my political career advocating that progress requires inclusion, but such an outcome cannot be achieved at the point of a gun.
“We need to see action from the NI Executive to reduce this type of territorial marking. We need to increase the amount of shared spaces, something that this mural clearly does not.
“This is not the type of image we should be sending out to the world. G8 leaders saw the best of Northern Ireland; unfortunately this mural is the polar opposite.”
ENDS