Why the statue of Sloane must remain up in Down

THE Dufferin Arms in Killyleagh, Co Down, is renowned for having one of the finest, and most eclectic Irish traditional sessions anywhere. The Saturday afternoon shindigs are legendary, with musicians from both sides of the cultural divide, Ulster Scots and traditional Irish. To further add to this cooperative situation, if you choose to sit al fresco during the summer months, you may well experience a further musical phenomenon. The Inch Flute Band regularly parades right past the Dufferin Arms. You can listen to a few tunes on fife and drums, then retire to your snug to hear the traditional ensemble. The Good Friday Agreement in full living colour.

Should you decide to have a walk later, a dander south-east along Shore Street will lead you to Strangford Lough — and Hans Sloane Square.

That name may be familiar to you: Sloane helped found the British Museum. But last month his bust was removed from public display in the museum.

Meanwhile his statue in the Duke of York Square in Chelsea has been the target of protests.

Hans Sloane’s collection of some 70,000 historical artefacts and curios became the basis of the British Museum and Natural History Museum in London in the 1750s. The problem is, all that nicking from across the globe was partly funded by profiteering from slavery.

But his statue still overlooks Strangford Lough from the square (pictured left), not more than a mile from where he was born, and where his ancestors were part of the Anglo-Irish ascendancy.

The whole practice of removing statues from their plinths because of perceived historical malfeasance is fraught with difficulties and anomalies. In the case of Killyleagh — which, as shown by the Dufferin Arms, has a mixed Catholic-Protestant demographic — those difficulties are given an added burden. It’s probably best to leave Hans Sloane on his Killyleagh plinth for the foreseeable future.