Tensions were easing in a loyalist area of Belfast last night, after the issue of who legally owns a parrot that can sing The Sash was finally resolved.
The city's Magistrates' Court ruled yesterday that Sambo, an African grey parrot famed for his stirring renditions of the Orange anthem, should be returned to Mrs Jane Hutchinson, whose husband bought him for her as a present.
African greys are prized for their intelligence and can live for up to 70 years. But when Sambo fled the Hutchinsons' home in loyalist Tiger's Bay in 1998, there were fears for his welfare. Tiger's Bay is close to the strongly nationalist New Lodge, where the bird's life expectancy could have been dramatically shortened had he started singing.
In the event, Sambo found his way into the hands of the RUC and was then given to a vet who has looked after him since. But he became the focus of a legal stand-off when his original owner, Mrs Elizabeth Jamison, claimed her estranged husband had sold him without permission.
Feathers flew in court in December when the two sides presented their arguments. The Resident Magistrate, Ms Sarah Creanor, reserved judgment, but finally ruled yesterday in favour of Mrs Hutchinson, subject to payment of £2,300 in fees to the vet who had looked after the bird for the past two years.
She found against Mrs Jamison on the grounds that the several months which had elapsed before she sought custody of the parrot from her husband amounted to abandonment. A parrot was not an inanimate object, the judge said.
Linguistic skills and longevity are not the only things prized in the African grey. Their intelligence is remarkable and, in addition to musical abilities, it is claimed they can have a vocabulary of 2,000 words, more than some Northern politicians.
Sambo was reported to be singing dumb yesterday, but outside the court, Mrs Hutchinson was striking a happy chord. "The children will be delighted that Sambo is coming home," she said.
