Peace in Northern Ireland shattered by frustrated, under-educated Loyalists whose union flag protests have no clear endgame

Protesters must come up with a coherence and sense of purpose, recognise what they want and use the political process to achieve it

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Loyalists protesters in Belfast city center for a protest against new restrictions on flying the Union flag.

Photo by PA

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The sense of political isolation is not helped by many of the Unionist politicians. Since this whole crisis began neither Robinson nor the Ulster Unionist leader, Mike Nesbitt, have gotten ahead of the curve on this issue. What the electorate have been treated to is a mix of knee jerk responses and confused statements from members of their parties. Both men have set up a Unionist forum to look into the grievances that the protestors are highlighting. Yet this must in reality only compound rather than alleviate the sense of drift and lack of leadership that exists within that community. The misguided desire for a coherent Unionist response to this crisis is part of the problem not the solution. Political leaders on both side of the divide need to climb off of grand visions of Northern Ireland and start addressing real concerns that are the real driver of this problem.

Read more: Northern Ireland police boss apologizes to nationalists for loyalist riots

But what about the protesters, since this entire saga began there is still no coherent agenda coming from the various leaders of the loyalist community? We have seen demands for the abolition of the executive to an apology from the Irish government over the failure to tackle the IRA during the Troubles. We are five weeks into this debacle and I still do not know what the protester's endgame is. What needs to happen now is some coherence and sense of purpose needs to be established by the Loyalist community in actually recognising what they want and use the political process to achieve it. While these protests may be useful in keeping their base motivated, it is eroding support among the rest of the population who are becoming increasingly fed up at either being blocked from returning home from work or seeing their businesses suffer as people stop venturing into the city centre. The Loyalists now have a clear choice they can either be at the table or they can end up on the menu.

David McCann is a PhD Researcher at the University of Ulster looking at Irish Politics. Follow him on Twitter @dmcbfs.   

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