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A statue of a wartime New Zealand Prime Minister is caught up in sectarian conflict in a Northern Ireland town.
A bronze figure of William Massey, New Zealand's second-longest serving Prime Minister and leader of the country during World War I, stands outside the council building in the County Londonderry town of Limavady.
On Tuesday, from his plinth, Massey oversaw an angry confrontation between loyalists and Sinn Fein supporters regarding a controversial move by nationalist councillors to promote a neutral workplace by removing all religious or royal imagery from public display.
Among items caught up by the proposal are a royal wedding commemorative coffee mug, gifts to the town from British and Welsh regiments, and the statue of Massey.
The future Prime Minister was born in Limavady in 1856 and emigrated to New Zealand in 1870 - but not before becoming a member of the Protestant-aligned Orange Order. He remained a proud Ulsterman his whole life, and was a member of an Auckland Orange Lodge.
Massey twice returned to Limavady while Prime Minister, in 1914 and 1921. As well as the statue, a plaque has been mounted on his old family home.
Though Limavady is a unionist stronghold, the surrounding district is nationalist. Anne Brolley, a former Sinn Fein mayor of Limavady, said the unionists should support a move to make the council more user-friendly and neutral.
However, George Robinson, a former Democratic Unionist mayor of the town, said the bid to remove symbols such as the statue constituted a "full-frontal assault" on unionists.
Northern Ireland's Equality Commission has been brought in to help mediate and a council sub-committee is considering the issue.
Auckland historian Dr Michael Bassett said Massey liked to pose as an Orangeman when it suited him. "He certainly was a member of a masonic order ... but there is no evidence that I have ever seen that he spent a great deal of time with the Orange Lodge.
"It's worth remembering that he was in double harness through most of the war years with (Sir Joseph) Ward, who was a devout Catholic.
"Although there was no love lost between them, that could be deemed as being down to political rivalry rather than any religious bigotry."
Any move to remove Massey's statue because of his Orange Order links would be over the top as he was not an extremist, Dr Bassett said.
"You'd have thought a little town in [Northern] Ireland would be rather proud that one of their people went off to New Zealand and became Prime Minister ... if multicultural politics involves destroying the history of a place, well then it has no future."
