Repainting of ‘referendum steps’ nears completion
The repainting of Devil’s Gap Steps for the 50th anniversary of the 1967 Referendum is expected to be completed by the end of this week.
Young volunteers at the Gibraltar Youth Service have been hard at work every morning since last Thursday repainting the steps in time for the anniversary celebrations.
The youngsters learnt about the Referendum and the history of the steps prior to undertaking the task of painting. Groups of between 15 and 30 youngsters have been volunteering in the mornings.
Volunteers Jade Garcia, Adam Boydon, Christopher McKay, and Hayley Cordon aged between 12 and 17 told the Chronicle they had been painting every day for three hours.
They explained how they discussed the 1967 Referendum result and local patriotism both then and now.
“I learnt that in Gibraltar we stay British and we are happy to stay British,” said 12-year old Christopher McKay.
17-year old Jade Garcia said: “I think we all have acknowledged the Referendum result and there is a strong sense of how we are proud to be British here. The patriotism is really vastly spread across Gibraltar and I think we did make the right decision 50 years ago.”
The repainting of Devils Gap Steps, commonly known as Referendum Steps, is part of a range of anniversary celebrations with a special concert on September 8 at Casemates Square, another on Saturday 9 September at the Victoria Stadium and National Day itself celebrating 50 years of the 1967 Referendum.