Bigots who scrawled anti-Catholic graffiti on Dumbarton’s Denny Tank Museum have been branded “mindless”.
Vile messages daubed in blue and black spray paint were noticed on the building on Thursday last week, the day after the Old Firm clash between Celtic and Rangers.
Dumbarton councillor Karen Conaghan, who had previously highlighted the issue of anti-Catholic graffiti locally whilst calling for more education within schools to combat bigotry, said she was disgusted by the messages.
The SNP member told the Lennox: “This mindless vandalism is disgusting on a number of levels.
“The money that needs to be spent cleaning this up could undoubtedly be better spent elsewhere.
“It’s sickening that our scarce resources are spent removing this bile.
“It’s also quite depressing that despite the steps we are taking to educate people on the often devastating effects of sectarianism and hatred, we still see things like this on a reasonably regular basis.
“Ignorance is at the root of this, you’d really have to be stupid to think that someone should be a target because of where they come from or the religion they are part of, and breaking the cycle of generational bigotry and hatred is challenging but we need to keep trying.
“Thankfully the good and decent people of this area vastly outweigh those who perpetrate this moronic behaviour and I know they will continue to condemn this stain on our society.”
Councillor Conaghan’s comments were echoed by Dave Scott, director of anti-sectarianism charity Nil by Mouth.
He said: “There is always a high level of ignorance and arrogance about people who graffiti public buildings, as if their views deserve to be heard more than anyone else’s. But to add direct threats toward Catholics in this way isn’t just anti-social behaviour but religiously aggravated hate crime and needs to be treated as such by society.
“Hopefully police can use CCTV to catch the bigots behind this and they will face the full consequences of their actions in court.
“We reported this to the council and it’s depressing to think that amidst a cost of living crisis public money is having to be spent cleaning up after sectarian morons.
“We estimate one in four reported graffiti incidents in Scotland have a hate-crime element to them and would urge people to report what they see and they know.
“We would also like to see courts and children’s panels look at ways of ensuring those involved in such offences are made to clean up similar displays of hate to help atone for their behaviour.
“Full credit to the council for getting this removed so quickly – it’s the sort of response we need.”
Whilst Labour MSP for Dumbarton Jackie Baillie added: “This is absolutely despicable. I cannot understand why someone would plaster such offensive slogans across a museum celebrating Dumbarton’s rich shipbuilding history.”
