A planning application for a centenary stone in the grounds of Stormont has led to objections being submitted to Belfast City Council.

The stone, shaped as a map of Northern Ireland on a Portland stone plinth, was intended to mark one hundred years since the founding of Northern Ireland in 1921. The unionist parties have funded the proposal.

Speaking to media at Parliament Buildings on Monday, DUP MP Gavin Robinson described the objections as an act of hypocrisy. He noted that Sinn Féin representatives had recently permitted the erection of a statue of hunger striker Bobby Sands without planning permission.

Robinson said council officers would handle the application and expressed confidence that planning policy would be applied properly.

The original proposal for the stone was voted down by the Assembly Commission in 2021 after Sinn Féin said it reflected only one political perspective. A subsequent proposal to locate it within the Stormont grounds passed in 2023 after a Sinn Féin member left the commission.

A Sinn Féin response stated that the Stormont estate serves as a workplace for MLAs, staff, and others. The party said many of those working there are opposed to celebrating the partition of Ireland and the creation of what it called an Orange state.

The statement added that Stormont is already dominated by symbols of unionism and British identity, with little representation of Irish or other cultures, and that adding a new unionist symbol would deepen existing inequality on the estate.