The removal of the statue of a celtic sea god Manannán Mac Lir has been covered by a number of the news outlets. The large heavy statue was placed at a view point on Binevenagh Mountain about a year ago. According to John Sutton its sculptor it would have been difficult to remove and required angle grinders and and several hours. It has now been taken and replaced with a cross bearing the words: “You shall have no other gods before me” which some have taken to be a reference to the First Commandment (verbatim from the NIV Exodus 20:3) resulting in police considering a religious motivation for the theft as reported by the BBC and News Letter.
The Belfast Telegraph is more certain: “Christian extremists steal statue…” though possibly less accurate in its report of the inscription: “Thou Shalt Not Have False Gods Before Me” which is not a translation from any version I can find and clearly conflicts with the text from other news outlets. It couldn’t be that our leading national newspaper (the one that thinks Strabane is in Fermanagh) did not actually go to the site?
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